Decode
by TheCritter
Summary: His moment was her moment, each fighting for what they were told was right, but in the end will the both be wrong? DracoxOc
1. Chapter 1

KH: Been a long time since I've written fanfiction. I want to do this one…just to do it. I really hope you'll read it and review. It'll keep me going. :D

I don't own any characters but my own.

Sweat rand down Jessi's jaw line, and dripped from her chin. Falling repetitively in the same spot between her crossed legs. Her wand was clenched in one hand and the other was forcibly relaxed in her left knee. Her mind stretching out where her eyes were blind, holding up the hundred or so pounds, forcing her magic to suspend them, her mind concentrating it.

"It's midnight Miss Jessi, I believe you father will see you've trained enough for today," said the old wizened voice of Cope, the Rands's family house elf. The hair that sprouted from his ears was almost as long as the strands on his old feeble chin.

Jessi's concentration broke and the weights she had been holding up blind with assistance from her wand came crashing down. Her eyes were livid, but she was not unhappy with the elf who looked on unfazed.

"Thank you Cope," she said as she rolled out her bent legs. Muscles strained and bones popped from their poised structure.

"Shall I prepare a bath?" he asked.

"Yes, that would be nice. Thank you," she said as she twisted, her back arching and popping. The elf nodded and departed. Leaving her alone with the only portrait in the training and exercising room.

"I'm almost there, mom," she said to the portrait of an attractive red-haired woman whose eyes gazed on affectionately. Her daughter, sporting the same red hair, bowed as she turned the lights of and left.

The elf had set out a light fluffy towel, robe, and had lit a few slightly scented candles, aimed to relax a fighter after arduous training. Jessi eased into the deep tub full of hot water. Sleep ebbing behind her eyelids but the cries of her strained muscles kept her awake.

She had been training for hours on end. Her last bit before head back to school the next day. She would be gone till spring and she didn't want to start off her sixth year as lazily as she had her last. The twanging and complaining muscles spoke of a testament. She wasn't yet strong enough. Physical training was just as important, if not more so, that her magical training. Because once you disarm your opponent, you still have to kill them.

The Rands line was not only as pure as it was fierce but deadly too. All who carried Zenith Rands blood in their veins abided by the clan's deep rules. Ones that had not only kept themselves safe for years but had kept much of the wizarding world safe as well.

For the Rands were Dark Wizard hunters, but often enough given the title of Aurors. Some of the best as well. Trusted for centuries to guard and protect the will of the wizarding world.

But the Rands name held a curse, which was almost unstoppable. There was not one person under its name who did not die a most gruesome death. Jessi's mom had died that way, as had her grandparents and their parents.

All of these thoughts fell onto Jessi's conscious as she let the warm water ease her muscles. She was not the heir, thank _God_, but the honor of her line weighted heavily in her chest like most Rands's. _Honor above Defeat._ The golden rule.

Scrubbing herself before she fell asleep she couldn't help but see the brand on the upper shoulder of her wand hand. It was an intricate arrow, pointed upward with curls and points decorating it and the phrase, "Fall unto our Might," in Latin below it. Zenith Rands's famous words and his line's motto. Her tattoo was always hidden, either via spell or clothing. The wizarding world often did not know the identity of Rands for they often chose false surnames to hide themselves. Secrecy was of utmost importance. Even at a young age Jessi was taught to respond to the name Davis, but honor Rands.

Forgoing the robe, she dried off with the towel and wrapped it around her tense and quivering body. Sleep weighted heavily on her head.

'_You've been more tired before,'_ she chided herself as she looked into the mirror at herself. As a child she'd had long wavy red hair, but upon turning twelve it had been sheared off to her chin. The waves flitting in every direction and sporting a color similar to the Weaslys.

Jessi was not related to them in any way; Rands were infamous from their roots in Slytherin house, like the Weasly's were in Gryffindor. There were many rumors of the Wizard hunters using Dark magic themselves.

That could have been true for all Jessi knew. Until she was twenty, or took down a dark wizard on her own, she could not be inducted into the center most circle and would not know the clan's inter workings. For now she had but one mission. And that was to watch the students of Hogwarts for any Dark Magic.

And that was an easy job when you're in Slytherin.

00—00—00

Jessi had few friends, and the ones she did have weren't what one would confide secrets to. They gossiped mercilessly about others and each other. Jessi tried to stay as neutral as possible when the discussion came to such people as Harry Potter.

The Rands were not ever, nor would be, a part of the Order of the Phoenix; they would have laughed at the suggestion of it. They did _not_ work with others. A Rands was taught to depend on herself and _only_ herself.

But Jessi tried to pretend to be engaged in whatever her friends were saying as they feast for the new school year blossomed before them. She was ravenous but made sure to eat only what was necessary. She wouldn't be caught cumbersome and unwieldy. Years of training had scared her in such a way.

"Can you _believe_ that bitch?" snarled Coralline to Bev as they pointed over their chicken and dumplings toward Pansy Parkinson who looked as pleased as punch as she stroked Draco Malfoy's shoulder.

Jessi nodded and focused on the two with her friends. Savoring the taste of her pudding.

"I don't see what he does in her," said Bev indignantly, "She's a bloody _pig_."

"She's and _easy_ lay," said Coralline factually, "but she's horrible. She lit my transfiguration homework on fire last year during exams because I called her an idiot."

Pansy had done nothing but glare at Jessi, something she did to any girl she thought might want to steal him from her clutches. Jessi, herself, had never done anything to provoke her as far as she knew. Her father on the other hand, had her uncle locked up in Azkaban three years ago for charges of smuggling Dark Objects into France.

Jessi watched them a tad longer than her friends, who had resided to telling horror stories about the tyranny of Pansy. Her prodding brown eyes were met by a pair of steeling grey ones belonging to none other than Draco Malfoy. She pulled her gaze from him but noted his up and down glance at her. She narrowed her eyes instinctively and shot him a reproachful look. _'Do it again I dare you'_ look and he simply smirked and turned away.

"Did…did, Draco just _smile_ at _you_?" asked Bev incredulously, knocking Jessi from her harmful thoughts. A soft warm blush touched her pale and slightly freckled cheeks.

"No, he was just… I don't know… smirking," she responded awkwardly. No amount of Rands training had taught her about social situations.

Coralline's face lit up. "Did he catch you staring? He catches me all the time but he never _smiles_," she said, trailing off with a pout.

"I just gave him a disgusted look because he was…" Jessi couldn't finish the sentence because she just realized what he had been doing and the words had frozen in her throat.

"Oh my God!" squealed Bev, "he was totally checking you out! Right?!"

"He was just _looking_," she whispered as she looked down into her pudding. Her hand froze holding her spoon.

"I can't blame him," said Coralline despite Jessi's scathing look, "You have got to work out all the time to have a body like that."

Jessi shot her a glare which she shook of easily by saying, "_Just saying_."

Jessi let the conversation slide off into some other topic and she gave one more glance down at the blonde before heading to the dormitories. This time Draco did not catch her looking but Pansy did. Giving her a glared and sticking out her tongue childishly.

Jessi kept the spell from her lips and relaxed her hand around her wand beneath the table. Its point directed at the girl's heart.

Her mission said keep a look out for Dark magic. Draco Malfoy was the best place to start.


	2. Chapter 2 Facade

KH: Thanks so much to Lexxi and Animic for reviewing! Hope you all enjoy.

I own only my own characters.

00—00—00

_How can I decide what's right  
When you're clouding up my mind?  
_

00—00—00

The sun was rising whenever Jessi made it out to the Quidditch field. Its golden rays spilling over the empty stands and thawing the frost that lay early on the grass. Her tennis shoes were wet around the rims but the urge to keep moving kept her running.

Her heart thundered in her chest and her lungs filled and emptied and an unrelenting rhythm that gave her a sort of tranquility. Leg muscles bunching and stretching. She felt like she could kick a hole in the still starry sky and punch a crack in the moon.

'_No one can defeat me,'_ she thought as she rounded her final lap, her muscles screaming for her to stop but the sweat on her brow egged her on. _'No one. Not my father, not a werewolf, and certainly not any stuck up Slytherin boys.'_

00—00—00

On their way to the dungeons, Jessi and Bev stared up at the bright poster that highlighted the rather dreary hallway. In bright bold letters were the words:

**Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry **

Presents:

**The First Annual Dueling Competition**

A competition will be held for all students to join into. From each house one student will be chosen to compete against the other houses. The victor will win a hand crafted trophy that will stand in the trophy halls of Hogwarts forever, and will be awarded 250 points to their respective house.

Albus Dumbledore

A small crowd had gathered around them as they read the sign. Filch wheezed away, almost hitting a few first years with his latter.

"You should join," prompted Bev as she looked over at her red haired friend, "You're ability in Cursing and Counter Cursing is probably best in the class next that Granger girl."

Jessi smiled a and blushed a bit, "I don't think I'd last long enough, I'm not mean enough." In truth she was too afraid that she might give away herself. In the heat of battle a hunter can forget what their fighting for when the adrenaline kicks in.

Bev laughed and smirked, "You're too modest Jessi, how ever did you get into Slytherin? Just _go_ for it. Your name will be written down in Hogwart's history, plus with all those points we're bound to win the house cup this year!"

Jessi laughed at Bev's insane energy to de-throne the defending champs; the Gryffindors. She did have a point, though Jessi concluded as she sighed and watched the crowd suddenly begin to part.

"I'll think about it. We have a month to sign up anyway," she said unsure still. She knew it would not only be good training but it might actually be fun. She didn't get to do things that were fun at home, it was simply, study, then train and study some more. And since she was at Hogwarts her father had no control over her, as long as she kept her cover, he'd be alright with it. '_Well,_' thought Jessi, '_He would expect me to win if I participated_.'

"Move it!" growled a deep snarling voice as two behemoths of boys emerged from the crowd. First and second years moved quickly out of the way of the trio. Crabbe's fist collided with the back of some fourth year's head and before the kid could retort Malfoy shoved him out of the way to have full view of the poster himself.

His grey eyes searched it, prodding it as if it might suddenly kneel down at his feet and worship him. His bodyguards stared around at the crowd, daring someone to try to move their king from his spot.

"A competition? Who do they think they're kidding?" sneered Malfoy, his pale face scanning the crowd, "Everyone knows this is just some sort of training, Dumbledore just wants to see who the best fighters are. Parade them around you know?"

A Gryffindor shouted in protest and the crowd parted so that Draco and his posse could see him. The kid blanched and began backing away.

"Say I'm lying?" snarled Draco as he walked steadily up to the boy. Goyle and Crabbe flanking him.

"D-Dumbledor d-doesn't nee-ed someone t-to fight f-or him!" squeaked the first year. Draco sneered at him and pointed his wand at the kid's nose.

"I'll make you _eat_ those words," he whispered his voice like ice and the hair on the nape of Jessi's neck prickled.

"No you won't," she said, appearing in a flourish of her robes in the vacuum the crowd had left as Draco stalked the younger boy. Her light, almost blonde oak wand was pointed at Draco's back and her brown eyes glared into his electric ice ones.

'_What am I doing?_' she asked herself, _'Why am I standing up for this little kid? I'm going to be murdered alive by Draco Malfoy!'_

'**Really now?'** asked the Rands inside of her, the hunter who didn't bow to anyone**, 'I think not.'**

'_You never think clearly,_' she argued.

'**You think too much.'**

"A _Slytherin_? Standing up for a _Gryffindor_?" said Draco icily as he turned to face Jessi's wand, "And I thought you only _looked_ like a blood traitor Weasly."

"I'm not a traitor, but I'm not scum enough to pick on those weaker than me," she spat, lowering her want from his face to his chest, "_Malfoy_."

"Don't play games with me _Davis_," he sneered, his grey eyes holding none of the nonchalance they had held at the beginning of year feast. Now they were twin pools of cold fire. Ice packed into small stabbing orbs.

"I'm not playing with you Malfoy, I wouldn't give you the pleasure," retorted Jessi, Bev sniggered at her words, "I'm challenging you."

"To what?" snarled Draco as he stood over her, a full head or so taller than her, his chest wider than her entire body and his hands looked ready to crush her. But he didn't bring his wand to point at her. He looked to be restraining himself.

Jessi's mind was flying but all thoughts kept coming back to one thing. The words were at her lips before she could stop them.

"A Duel," she said softly, "The competition, I challenge you to enter…"

'**That's my girl,'** whispered the Rands.

"…and to try to defeat me."

Draco looked a bit taken back by the threat. The crowd burst into chatter and Bev hollered above them all. "Jessi!! JESSI!"

He didn't like how the mood of the crowd had suddenly swung into Jessi's favor and cursed under his breath.

"I have better things to do than enter into some stupid little contest we all know I would win anyway," he hissed at her as he motioned to his lumbering oafs to start leaving. He turned his back to Jessi and the fire that had built in her chest could do nothing but push words into her throat.

"Then you're a bloody _coward_ Draco Malfoy!"

The entire crowd hushed at her proclamation. She gave a small grin to Bev who had a shocked and delighted expression on her round face. Draco on the other hand was less than pleased that someone would tread all over his reputation with such a slander.

"What was that Davis?" he hissed, his grey eyes narrowed into slits and his wand once more in his hand and pointed to the area right about her heart which was thundering in her ears.

"My name's Jessi, learn it Malfoy, if you ever even _think_ you can beat me," she goaded. Her limbs felt like they were made of lead and Draco's stare probably could have turned her to stone but the warmth that had gathered in her chest and on her cheeks kept her unafraid, her racing heart pumping the blood through her frozen limbs.

'**Show no fear,'** said the Rands.

"Piss of Davis!" snarled Pansy who had suddenly appeared; it appeared as though there were much heavier footsteps coming down the corridor behind her, but the crowd was too focused on the scene before them.

"Shut up you fat pig," growled Bev back as she flanked Jessi as Pansy came up to Draco's side. He didn't appear to be too happy that she saw herself as his backup.

"I thought your mother told you to behave while you were here Draco," said Snape as he came into view, a few of the first years appeared ready to bolt but his placid black glaze kept them rooted to the spot.

Draco looked even more furious than before. Jessi wasn't really sure how that could really happen because she was sure she'd almost knocked him off his rocker before. Quickly she tucked her wand away, hoping Snape didn't see.

"And Miss Davis…about to hex someone?" he asked with a raised eyebrow and a sharp look. All of Jessi's confidence fell to her feet.

"Professor I was just…" she tried to explain.

"The rest of you to class," he ordered to the other students who took of like a flock of frightened doves. Bev lingered by Jessi's side, giving her a sympathetic look and a wave goodbye as she headed down into the dungeons, where hopefully, if Snape didn't kill her, she too would be heading.

"I want to know just what you two were doing with your wands out looking like you were about to _maul_ one another," snapped Snape as he peered down his crooked nose at the two of them.

"_She_ was smart-mouthing me and I was going to teach her a lesson," said Draco, his eyes refused to meet Snape's and his fists were clenched at his sides.

Jessi normally didn't squeal on other people, but since Malfoy was all for spilling what had happened so was she.

"Only because _he_ was about to beat up a first year Professor," she said as forcefully as possible. Trying to get the potions master to believe her.

Snape sent quite a scathing look in Draco's direction but that was clearly not to show that Jessi was off the hook.

"Detention for both of you," he said, "my office, tomorrow at seven o'clock."

00—00—00

"I can't _believe_ you got me a detention Davis," snarled Draco as he and Jessi entered the Slytherin common room.

"You started the entire thing!" snapped Jessi, who had about had it with Draco's incessant whining all afternoon. Even in classes she didn't have with him she could feel him talking about her. She had enough thoughts buzzing through her mind with all he homework McGonagall had given them; Transmutation was her worst subject, _ever_.

"Me?" he turned on her, "You're the bloody traitor, standing up for a Gryffindor."

"A _freak'n_ first year!"

Malfoy turned on her and was clearly about to shout some obscenity at her when Pansy entered the common room.

"Draco? What are you doing hanging out with her?" she asked a feigned hurt look on her face. Draco turned to look at her; he had obviously wanted to cuss Jessi out alone. Without any witnesses to his judgment.

"We just entered the dungeon at the same time," replied Jessi as she brushed by her on her way to the girls' dormitory, "Draco wouldn't get lucky enough to 'hang out' with me."

Pansy turned her round face into that of Draco's thin one. He gave her an agitated look and started to stalk off when she grabbed his arm. He hissed in pain and she stood stricken at the forearm she had grabbed.

"I'm sorry I didn't…" she whispered.

Draco's cold eyes bore into hers, but he bit his lip and said nothing and left for the boy's dormitories.

00—00—00

"What do you know about Jessi Davis?" asked Malfoy as he leaned against the frame of Blaise's bed. The boy looked up at him dolefully.

"Why the sudden interest?" Blaise said as he continued to read his _Daily Prophet_. His dark eyes scanning the page uninterestedly.

"Just tell me what you know," hissed Draco, his chest heaving behind his scarcely closed shirt. He looked rumpled, his hair in a disarray and his socks forgotten on his own bed.

"Not much," answered Blaise, "She doesn't have much of a history. She's smart, no doubting that. Almost as that Mudblood Granger, but she's a pureblood as far as any of us know. What did she do to you?" he asked with a smirk.

"That competition that the old fool's making," began Draco, "She challenged me to it."

Blaise gave a snort of laughter and Draco swatted him over the head with his own paper. Leaning down into his face he sneered.

"I have more important things to attend to Zabini, I can't have his insane Weasley looking girl following me and distracting me. Is she a threat or not?" hissed Draco.

Zabini hardly looked phased. Instead he removed Draco's hand from his collar and straightened out his shirt.

"She knows how to cast a spell Malfoy; she's not going to let you off easy. I heard Pansy and Mildred talking about her, apparently under all of that red hair there's muscle there. And from the sounds of things she knows how to use it. Her father threw Pansy's uncle in Azkaban a few years ago. Rumor's say he's and Auror," explained Zabini.

Malfoy looked at his quizzically and sat down on the corner of the bed despite the boy's upset looks. He ran a hand up through his blonde locks.

"What's an Auror's daughter doing in Slytherin?" he asked the air about him since Zabini looked like he'd given all the information that he knew.

"I also heard she's smoking hot in muggle clothes," added Zabini, "That is if you want 'beat' her in other ways that with a wand." He grinned and prodded Malfoy with his rolled up paper.

"I don't have time for women," snarled Draco, "Especially some girl who looks like a Weasley and acts like one too!"

Zabini shrugged, "_You_ asked for what I knew, I was simply informing you."

"That was completely unneeded information," ground out Draco as he put his hands on his small waist. His mind, like most boys, had wandered there despite his valor attempts of worthwhile information.

"Oh shut up, you liked it," said Zabini stiffly. He smirked at the glare Draco sent him, "You're thinking about shagging her as much as I am."

"As I said before I have more important things to attend to. And since all the information you have is of no use to me I'm going to sleep," muttered Draco as he slumped into his own bed. Crabbe and Goyle we're both snoring noisily and the other boys in the dorm were either downstairs or sleeping as well.

"What's more important that getting some?" asked Zabini with a false innocence. He snickered at the scathing look Draco sent him and let his _Prophet_ fall to the floor.

"Bet you'll have to take a trip to the bathroom Malfoy," jeered Zabini.

"Not before you Zabini," said Malfoy, his words muffled by his pillow. His thoughts on Jessi and her flaming red hair and the dangerous look he found in her eyes.

'_What is she about? I'd hardly even seen her before, and suddenly she's all over me… Well not literally,'_ he thought and cursed at himself for letting his mind wander back to such instinctual urges_, 'Well its not like I have feelings for her, I just need to figure some way to get her out of my way so I can go on with my plans.'_

He closed his eyes and could feel the point of her wand at the middle of his back like a dangerous creature ready to pounce. All of its muscles bunched up and its mouth salivating for his blood. Eyes lit by a feral fire and a rumble deep within its chest that it had been repeating for a thousand years…

Draco didn't know he'd fallen asleep until he'd woken up the next day. Zabini had flicked him in the face with his wet hair before he'd left. Dragging himself groggily out of bed his forearm gave a slight twinge, not something serious he confided as he gazed at it. The pain disappeared and did not hinder him anymore. It was not a sign.

"Hurry it up Malfoy!" shouted Zabini from the common room. Gathering up his shower things he drug his sleepy butt into the bathroom. Closing the door behind him with a loud thud. Ready to wash away the happenings of the day before with hot, burning water.


	3. Chapter 3 You vs Me vs You

KH: Hope you enjoy this chapter. I worked hard on it and came up with a few spells on my own. If you'd like to know what they do just ask and I'll include a small glossary in the next chapter. Thanks again to Lexxi for the help!

I only own my own characters.

00—00—00

_I can't win you're losing fight  
All the time_

With her homework scattered around Jessi slumped down into a chair in the slightly noisy common room. Bev and Coralline had Care for Magical Creatures at this time; Jessi on the other hand had a free period, which now was consumed with homework. She was furiously trying to get work done, seeing her evening would surmise of something awful Snape had concocted for her and Malfoy to do.

She shuttered as she thought of him. _'Why him of all people?'_

A billowing of robes caught her attention and peering up she caught the eyes, and face of the one person she really didn't want to see ever again.

"You better not try anything tonight," snarled Pansy. Her equally homely friend Mildred gave Jessi a look of great loathing, but everyone knew she wanted Draco even worse than Pansy.

"Don't worry Pansy. That weasel's all yours," drawled Jessi as she rolled her eyes and continued scribbling on her parchment. Pansy put her hands on her bulbous hips and leaned her pug-like face forward.

"I don't like your tone Davis."

'**Those who strike first fall last,'** whispered the Rands and Jessi took a deep breath to control herself. She couldn't just go lashing out at Pansy because she was an idiot who thought that Jessi had an interest in a certain blonde haired Slytherin.

Not that she _did_.

"Leave me _alone_, Parkinson," she hissed. She wanted to get back to work; she couldn't afford a bad grade in Charms just because some overstuffed pug was peering down at her. Though, when Pansy knocked the ink all over her parchment Jessi had just about had it with her.

'**Those who strike first fall last.'**

"Stay away from him," threatened Pansy as she walked away from Jessi, a haughty prance in her step. She fumed beneath her red locks and her teeth clenched. She couldn't take such a slander on her pride, much like someone else.

"Make me Parkinson! I'm going to wipe the floor with your beloved Draco," she shouted, her eyes narrowed to brown slits, "Then, Pansy, you're next."

The period ended before either of them could fly at each other and hex the crap out of one another. The Head Boy emerged and Jessi knew he hadn't a problem with disciplining girls of his own house, even if he did enjoy watching two girls fight.

00—00—00

"Late Miss Davis?" snapped Snape as Jessi entered the dungeons. Malfoy was already lounging rather haphazardly, his feet upon a desk. His grey stormy eyes flicked over her, and betrayed he was no where near as comfortable as he looked. He appeared to have been having a very intense conversation with the Professor when she entered.

"I'm sorry Professor, Peeves dumped some kind of slime down the stairs…" she said as she walked to the desk furthest from Draco, her shoes squelching and tracking goo about the room.

"Don't know a simple charm to get rid of that, eh Davis?" drawled Malfoy. Jessi sent a scathing look towards him, one of many, and Snape cleared his throat.

"Enough," he said, leaning over his desk he flicked his wand and all the desks flew together, forming a long smooth rectangular walk.

Draco and Jessi looked at each other then towards their professor who came up to the front of his desk and conjured a small step stool.

"Tonight, you will both learn to duel. _Properly_," announced Snape as he pushed the stool towards them, "Up. It's not like that heavyweight Lockhart actually taught you all _anything_."

Draco sneered haughtily over at Jessi who had a cold lump forming in her throat.

"Looks here Davis, we'll get to see how good you are at last. And maybe you'll reconsider that challenge," snarled Draco as he mounted their dueling lane. He didn't offer a hand to help her up, and she wouldn't have taken it if he had. She was just pleased she'd put a pair of pants on before this, so Snape couldn't glance up her skirt.

Snape's eyebrow snapped up in interest and Draco was more than happy to enlighten him.

"Davis challenged me to the school duel, sir," said Draco as Jessi took her side of the lane. Snape glanced between them a glint in his black eyes.

"And I presume you accepted?" asked Snape. His cold eyes bore into Draco who was paling quickly and Jessi found words amidst her throbbing heart.

"No sir," she said with a cocky grin, she pulled out her wand and tried to make a show of herself, to prove she wasn't afraid of him. She was using her Rands skills of bluffing to the best of her abilities.

Snape gave Malfoy quite a look.

"I…you know I have too many things to do Professor," stammered Draco as his face flushed and he tugged at his suit, "Proving some little Mudblood-lover wrong isn't one of them."

"Surely a few moments of your time would not hinder you," said Snape as his eyes clearly said Draco was to have accepted the challenge.

Draco looked like he was fighting inside himself. His hand gripped his wand tighter that what was probably best for it, and his blue veins showed up on his pale, white skin. His eyes flashed in anger.

"Fine!" shouted Draco, his handsome face contorted in rage. Jessi smirked despite her looming fear.

Her training taught her two things in dueling. Incapacitate or kill. She had few small, injuring spells in her arsenal and her brain was pounding as she searched her memory for the most basic her father had taught her.

"Very well, then consider this leisurely practice," instructed Snape who put a charm on the area around them so his precious trinkets wouldn't get damaged, "First to be hit three times loses."

Jessi's eyes met Draco's suddenly, as if a magnet pulled them so. They walked forward, their wands pointed upward before their faces. Every time Jessi's foot hit the hard desk top her heart beat would mirrored the sound in her ears. They stopped, just feet from one another, bowed, and began to walk back.

Thoughts racing in their minds.

The turn to face one another seemed ridiculously long. Jessi's body curved with the stance of a dueler, Draco mirrored her, spells on their lips and a fire between them.

'Those who strike first…'

"Alliveate Incatatem!"

"Gargious!"

With a flourish Jessi dodged Draco's body-locking curse and her conjured stone gargoyle bounced off Snape's barrier. Draco looked a little surprised as the Gargoyle sprang to live and leapt at him. He turned on it and forgot, momentarily, about Jessi.

"Reducto!"

"Fidious Feugo!"

Draco narrowly dodged the fireball and flicked his charm at the gargoyle, shattering the beast to small pebbles. A small smolder appeared on his coat and as they prepared once more he tore it off. The buttons coming apart at the top of his white dress shirt. Soft white skin beneath. Jessi noticed the small beads of sweat clinging to her back, but put them from her mind as she raised her wand over her head and attacked again.

"Oculace Degenro!"

"Lencito!"

Purple sparks flew from Jessi's wand and ruby ones with an orange tint from Draco's. Her blinding spell echoed off the barrier and flew back at Draco who let it strike into a chair. His curse barely missed Jessi, who felt it graze her cheek and the muscles their tightened up, she had almost been frozen solid.

"Quicker! You're opponents won't let you have a second chance!" barked Snape.

"Flipendo!"

"Stupefy!"

"Impedimenta!" _"Locomotor Mortis!"_

The curse hit her unexpectedly and she stumbled and fired off one of her best curses.

"_Unimandibilies!"_

Draco clutched his face with pure terror. His lips had been sealed shut and his voice box silenced. Unable to utter any sounds at all. Snape looked at them both curiously. Mark one for both of them.

"Diffindo!" shouted Jessi as she struggled to remember the counter curse for her leg bind. Draco's face turned even more outraged as his clothing suddenly began to slag for the seams had ripped.

They both knew the match was not over and Jessi was too preoccupied with tearing at the invisible bonds. The curse hit her without any warning.

Pain, erupted from the middle of her back. She let out a gasp of surprise and toppled over, her vision going black from all of the spots that collided together in front of her eyes. As if someone was tearing out her spine from her body she toppled off of the dueling platform and lay withering on the floor, unaware of the searing pain in her ankle because the rest of her body was on fire.

"_DRACO_!" bellowed Snape as he shot a quick jinx at the boy who fell over. Quickly releasing the spell from his face and repairing his clothes Snape gave him a hard look before hurrying over to Jessi.

Wheezing and panting in a fury and clambering up to her feet. Her brown eyes livid. She had been slapped, beaten up, and mistreated many years during her life but never, _never_, had anyone used and unforgivable curse on her.

"YOU **SCUM**!" she bellowed as she reached for the wand she had dropped. Snape was just about to snatch it from her wavering grip when she casted her spell.

"_Disantium Brazio!"_

Draco screamed bloody murder as his wand arm stretched out toward Jessi's wand. Clenched into a fist and pulsing it stretched but his body did not move because of the charm Snape had put on him. Instead the spell was slowly ripping his arm from its socket, a few wet snaps let Jessi know she had gotten the right effect, and would continue to get the right effect.

At least as long as she held eye contact.

Snape stared disbelieving at the two of them, perhaps he should have told them not to kill one another. He put himself in-between Jessi and Draco and he felt withering in pain and clutching his arm as Snape snagged Jessi's wand from her.

"That will be enough, both of you," he said calmly as he grabbed Jessi around the shoulders to hold her up. Steering her into a chair she sat exhaustedly, her ankle throbbing and her mind was wheeling.

'**No!'** shouted the Rands, **'Let me finish him.'**

'_Enough,'_ whispered Jessi who realized that this was only practice. And they had tied. But only at Snape's intervention.

'**Not again! I will not lose again!'** snarled the Rands, but Jessi pushed her from her mind.

"I'm sorry Professor," she whispered as Snape looked her ankle over. "I couldn't stop myself."

Snape gave her a curt look and created some bandages, making sure to pull them as tight as he could, despite not really having to. In the background Malfoy whimpered. He refused to cry out in real pain. He would not give Jessi the satisfaction of letting her know that she had dealt such a pain to him.

Snape left her at the chair and went to Draco, whom he sat up and pulled the shirt from his shoulder, despite having repaired it seconds ago. He muttered a few words and the arm sank back into its socket with a strangled cry from Draco.

"I refuse to heal all of your wounds, and you may not go to Madam Pomphrey's!" he declared, "This is punishment for such behavior. Unforgiveable curses are forbidden Draco, and torture hexes as well Jessi."

They both refused to look at one another, both breathing heavily and shuttering from the pain their injuries struck them with.

"Stupid _bitch_," snarled Draco beneath his breath as he slinked to the side of the lane, swinging off of it he had to give himself a few seconds to catch his breath before moving on.

"Stop," ordered Snape as Draco came to the door, glancing over his shoulder at the professor he scowled, "You will not leave here without Miss Davis."

"I'm not helping-"

Snape's look froze the words in his throat faster than Jessi's spell had. They glared at each other for some time before he swore again and lumbered over to Jessi.

"I don't want his help Professor," snarled Jessi, immensely sour. Snape glided over to them both quickly and smacked them both on the back of the head with the back of his hand. They both hissed and grumbled.

"Any more declarations of rebellion?" he drawled, his voice like ice and stilled anymore hostilities between them.

00—00—00

Draco said nothing as he helped Jessi down the corridor; luckily the slime Peeves had thrown everywhere was cleaned up. Jessi had wrapped an arm around his shoulders and his free hand was around her waist and they hobbled silently towards the common room. Jessi hand made Draco's jacket into a sling and his rather throbbing arm was lying in it, useless.

"I don't know what to say," whispered Jessi as they stopped on the stairs to catch their breath. She couldn't look at him, she felt…pity? She couldn't tell, she didn't want Snape to make him help her, she knew she couldn't have done it on her own but.

"Just…don't talk to me," whispered Draco, his shoulders shook with fury.

"Listen!" snapped Jessi, tired and slowly losing it, "I didn't want to use that on you. For God's sake you used the _Crusiatius Curse_ on me!"

Any words she might have uttered then were stilled in her throat. Those terrible, beautiful grey eyes bore into her own frightened brown orbs. His face a mask, cold and deadly. He grabbed her chin with his good hand and tilted up towards his own face.

"If I knew what was good for me I should have used _Avada Kadavra_," he whispered in a soft, deadly tone. His skin was strangely cold and his breath was soft on her face and tickled her eyelashes, she couldn't help the blood rushing to her cheeks.

He let go of her quickly after than and didn't talk to her till they were outside of the entrance to the common room. He let go of her and pulled at the knot she had made with his jacket. Awkwardly he tried to tug it on himself.

'_I wonder how it felts to be so afflicted by what people think,'_ she thought as she watched him fumble with the material, his arm too sore to move. She bit her lip and leaned out and grabbed the flopping material, easing his arm into the vacant hole.

"I don't _need_ you're _help_," he hissed.

"You're _welcome_," she spat back, turning she opened the door and her bad foot got caught on the threshold and she had stumbled a bit. A cold hand pulled her back from smacking her face on the cold stone. She gave out a small noise but let herself be pulled back into a standing position. Her ankle screaming in pain but her cheeks red with shame.

"_You're_ welcome," rumbled Draco as he stalked into the room stiffly. Bev and Coralline rushed over to Jessi and Pansy to Draco. She was in a flurry, he motioned to his injured arm and gave a vague description, and Pansy looked at Jessi as if she had lobbed his left nut off.

"How dare you! You traitorous, foul, _bitch_!" she screamed and a few other students had to hold her back. Anger flared up inside of Jessi to the point that she pushed Bev away and stood on her own, teetering a bit. She sighed and held up her fists in front of her face, a sudden calm coming over her.

"Come on then Pansy," she whispered, "I told you I'd wipe the floor with Draco now it's your turn."

The entire room hushed as the two glared at each other. Jessi tried to stay off her bad foot as much as possible but she still needed balance, which resulted in pain. Fire leapt through her veins, though, pulsing with adrenaline.

Pansy pushed out of the constraining hands and stalked up to Jessi, whom she was almost twice the size of. Jessi didn't appear fazed now, and the Rands in her had fallen into sync so perfect she didn't even feel herself looking back for her training. She'd done this so many times before, only now her punching bag was going to try to punch back for real.

"Those who strike first fall last, Pansy," whispered Jessi as she slid under the large girl's fists and twisted, pain in her ankle, but delivered a powerful punch to the underside of the girl's jaw, making her stumble backward into the arms of her friends, blood forming at the corners of her mouth where she must have bitten her tongue.

As Pansy fell away, Jessi saw Draco looking at her. His frozen face smirked, pale lips twitching into a small smile, cruel but smiling. He turned then and mounted the stairs to the dormitories.

With one last sigh of exhaustion Jessi fell back into the arms of her own friends.

'_Why do I feel all funny inside?'_

00—00—00

Draco clutched the frame of his bed as Zabini repaired his shoulder the best he could. He shuttered at the freezing feeling of the spell spilling down through his muscles.

"Bet she was _super_ hot cursing the crap out of you," he mumbled as he worked. Draco snorted.

"I was a little _preoccupied_ on the _gargoyle_ she set on me," he replied, his anger had burned down a bit; he was able to talk without being too degrading.

"Gargoyle? Well I can't say she doesn't have style," said Blaise with a smirk, he patted Draco on the shoulder, signaling he was done.

Draco rolled his eyes and shoulder and collapsed into his bed. "Snape's making me enter the contest."

Zabini's eyes lit up, "Really? Its going to be _so_ much fun watching her beat the crap out of you a _second_ time!"

The glare that Draco sent him could put Acid Pops to shame. Zabini only chuckled and reclined on his own bed.

"She really gave Pansy one," commented Blaise languidly, "That was pretty awesome, even you seemed impressed."

Draco shrugged stoically, "Someone was bound to do it eventually. It just…was Jessi who ended up snapping before anyone else."

"Oh? First name basis now?" said Blaise as he leaned over towards Draco's bed, "We that tight with her? You must _really_ like her hurting you, you freak!"

Draco tossed his pillow at the boy's head and seethed.

"You have no idea what you're talking about idiot," he muttered.

"Oh I _don't_?" said Blaise slyly.

"Yes," snarled Draco, rounding on him, "I hit her with the freaking _Crusiartus Curse_! That's not how you say _'I love you'_ to someone!"

Blaise was a bit taken back by the outburst and neatly placed Draco's pillow back on his bed. Watching him warily.

"Wow Draco…"

"Then she hit me with some curse…it nearly ripped my wand arm from my body!" snarled Draco as he pounded his good fist into the pillow. A few feathers and a stream of dust issued forth.

Zabini, of course, smirked about that.

"We'll she could've yanked something _else_ off."

"Seriously Zabini, _shut up_."

"If you're _trying_ to say 'I love you' I think you're going to have to _curse_ me so I get the _full_ effect."

It was a long night.


	4. Chapter 4 Vauge

Thank you emzigale07 for the kind review! Hope you all enjoy the chapter!

I only own my own characters.

_How can I ever own what's mine?  
When you're always taking sides  
_

Jessi almost didn't get up in the morning. Her ankle hurt so bad no matter the ice spells that Bev put on it could get the immense swelling to go down. Limping to the girl's bathroom she got a shower, washing away the sweat from the night before. Bev and Coralline watched her outline warily, making sure she didn't fall over again. Despite the pain, Jessi was feeling pretty ok. She felt rather good after wiping the floor with Malfoy.

'**We didn't finish him,'** whispered the Rands.

'_He didn't do anything,'_ replied Jessi as she scrubbed her hair.

'**He used Dark Magic,'** hissed the Rands.

'_So did I,'_ muttered Jessi aloud. Her friends coughed and pretended not to hear her. They weren't yet used to the whole "talking to myself" deal.

'**In retaliation,'** whispered the Rands, who then sunk back into her subconscious. Jessi sighed and turned off the water, watching the droplets roll down her body.

00—00—00

Jessi was soon learning to hate Defense Against the Dark Arts class. It was not the fact that she had it with Gryffindors, but the fact that half of her own house hated her now, due to the affliction of not only Draco, but Pansy as well.

Both of them sat glaring at her. Pansy with her sore and swollen lower jaw and Malfoy with his limp and paining shoulder. Between the two of them she feared Malfoy the most; he was the one who could do the most damage. She could simply outrun Pansy if it came down to it.

"What are you looking at _Davis_?" snarled Draco loud enough for the entire class to hear. He'd caught her glancing back at them, not only once, but three times now. Heads turned in their direction and she held her breath. Biting her lips and scowling because she knew her retort would decide if there would be bloodshed again. Every ear seemed to be honed in on the conversation.

"I was just seeing if…that arm of yours hurts, _Malfoy_," she said sourly. Draco looked peeved but defiantly not put out. He puffed up and Jessi's heart sunk. So much for no more fighting for the day.

"At least _I_ can _walk_!" he exclaimed as he smirked down at her. Jessi felt the hair on the nape of her neck stand up in anger. She was sick now, utterly sick of him. Never before in her life had she hated someone so immensely. Immediately she grabbed her wand the same time he did, but a deep loathing voice broke the momentum.

"Do we need _another_ detention?" growled Snape as he slammed his notebook down on his desk. Most students quickly went back to work on their notes. His cold black eyes flicked dangerously back and forth between the two. But the adrenaline pumping through their veins kept them from feeling the icy stabs.

"Yes Professor I think we do!" announced Draco, to everyone's, including Jessi's, amazement. His fearsome grey eyes locked with Snape's but then slid over to Jessi's, whose heart picked up even faster, as if she were running. "_Davis_ hasn't been put in her _place_."

If there is one thing you never say to a Rands, it is that they have a place that they need put in. It is in their mentality to assume they are always where they need to be in life, or in a situation. Jessi almost knocked over her chair as she stood up. Brandishing her wand her muscle's clenched with anger.

"I _dare_ you to say that _again_ Malfoy. You good for nothing _coward_!" she snarled, Draco leapt to his feet as well, and his wand arm visibly shook as he held it to her face. The student that had been seated between them ducked beneath his desk. Malfoy's face was rigid with anger and disgust.

"**Enough**!" snapped Snape as he tossed his cloak in a flurry of black fabric. His black eyes were glistening. "If you two are so _willing_ to kill one another we will have a rematch. But you **will** abide by the rules," he commanded. Jessi and Draco didn't take their eyes from one another but nodded stiffly.

Quickly, as not to get hit by the moving tables, everyone gathered up their things and hustled to the sides of the room. Jessi and Draco walked up the formation of desks again. Their shoulders rigid and tense.

'_I'm not going to be able to dodge well,'_ she thought as she glanced at her skirt and swollen ankle. She glimpsed at Draco as she mounted the stair.

His arm still throbbed, but he could use his arm. That would have to do. His heart beat in his chest and he could hear the thunder outside as a mid-September storm exploded on the school grounds. Lighting flashed over both of them. Turning his hair white and her eyes a bright gold, also blinding them momentarily.

In the ebbing silence of the classroom and the patter of the rain they walked toward each other. Tense waves of energy rolling off of them, intermingling with their emotions of rage, anger, and embarrassment. They bowed curtly, turned and walked back.

"Their seriously going to _duel_?" asked Ron as they watched the two strike up their poses. Harry watched them both carefully, his mind settling on the duel he and Malfoy had, had four years ago.

"I think so, that's where Jessi got that swollen ankle and Draco got that busted shoulder," muttered Hermione.

"I wonder if Malfoy's improved any," whispered Harry.

"On my mark," commanded Snape, glancing over the both of them. He was convinced that this was all because of Draco's immense ego.

"_**Begin**_!"

"_**Expelliarmus**_!"

"_Diffindo_!"

Their spells hit midair, sputtering in a wave of glittering sparks. Draco was the first to break the bond and fire his next spell, quick as lightening. His arm twitched painfully at the last minute and his spell veered off course and struck and old clock, turning it to stone. Gritting his teeth he gripped his wand and took another swing.

'_Damn hand! I can't…get…a good grip…'_

Jessi smirked and twisted as she released her own spell. Draco countered but didn't realize she taken a few steps closer to him. He snarled and sidestepped her spell, releasing two of his own spells.

"_Finite Incantatem_!" shouted Jessi to deflect the spells flying at her quicker than she could move. The force pushed her back though and her ankle threatened to give out. Flicking her wand she drew up another spell as Draco fired another one.

"_Unimandibilies_!"

"_Duro_!"

They're spells slammed into one another, pushing them both back on the platform. Students backed away and shielded themselves with textbooks from the light.

"Give it up Davis!" shouted Draco over the keening of the spells colliding.

"Never Draco!" yelled Jessi. They both knew they couldn't hold out forever. Someone would have to break off.

'_My ankle…I…I need to …defeat him…'_

'**Ignore the pain.'**

'_I…I can't!'_

'**Yes you can, you've trained harder than this, beaten foes more powerful.'**

'_No I haven't! I've never fought anyone like this before!'_

'**Then it's time to learn. Use his own tricks against him. Dark wizards use anything to get the upper hand.'**

Swinging her body, she broke the spell and ducked beneath the glowing light of the spells. With a great bound Jessi took off towards Draco. Her legs pumping quickly, moving almost faster than his defensive spell.

Outside thunder crashed and lightening struck, blinding light that caught everyone. Everyone save for Jessi who had closed her eyes at that very moment. Her wand jabbed into Draco's chest.

'_How…did she…?'_

"Checkmate Draco, _Impedimenta Maxima_."

Black bonds erupted from the tip of her wand and wrapped around Draco and toppled him over. Jessi sighed and took a step back, her ankle gave a crunch and she fell as well.

00—00—00

Jessi let out a strangled whimper as Madam Pomphrey moved her ankle around. She had broken it in various places. The swelling had tripled and the pain had accelerated. It wasn't helping whatsoever that Draco Malfoy sat right across from her, a blank look on his face, as if her pain meant nothing.

"I don't understand why Professor Snape didn't have you come to me immediately. It's swollen now so bad that we'll have to wait for the swelling to go down before I can properly heal it," said Madam Pomphrey.

"He said it was punishment," whispered Draco. His shirt was halfway off and a cloth dabbed his shoulder carefully by itself. If she hadn't been in such pain, Jessi would have admired the smooth cream white skin and how he was adamant about keeping his forearm hidden.

He was also being eerily quite. She didn't know if it was because of the defeat, or that he was truly thinking about something important.

"That's no sort of punishment," clucked the old medic-witch. She gave Jessi something to drink to settle her and walked over to Draco. She prodded his stiff muscles.

"Did a number that's for sure. You do this to each other?" she asked. Jessi simply stared over at Draco and he did the same. Sweat beaded on her forehead, the pain was subsiding but she still shook out of shock.

"Yes," answered Draco.

"Bloody dueling," muttered the nurse, "I don't know what Dumbledore is thinking."

"Its fun. Right Draco?"

Draco and the nurse stared at the drowsy Jessi whose head was supported now only by her pillow. Her brown eyes floated in and out of focus, she felt her conscious slipping away. Something in the potion was really getting the better of her.

"…he's the bes...t …challenge…"

Draco watched the words die in her throat, the potion knocking her under. The old witch beside him clicked her tongue.

"Such a sweet girl. Shame she's so caught up on such a thing."

"Sweet girl?" asked Draco disbelievingly, "She's the one who did this to me…bloody…bloody good at it is what she is."

The witch gave him a stern look. "She wouldn't have done it if she didn't think you could have handled it. Jessi isn't one to give pain unnecessarily. Unlike your sort."

Draco finally looked like he was feeling emotion again. He looked outraged.

"You're done now Mr. Malfoy," said the witch as she gathered up her things and departed to her office. Leaving him to dress in peace, he shook his head and redressed. Watching Jessi out of the corner of his eye as he did. He walked over to her and peered down at her curiously. She muttered and whimpered in her sleep. Her dark red hair sticking to her forehead. Her soft cheeks flushed with red.

"How did you do this to me then?" he muttered. Is cold had resting against her face, warming at the heat she radiated.

'_Like fire,'_ he thought, his fingertips tingling at the warmth.

Thunder crashed outside, lightening alighted all inside the hospital wing. Draco simply watched the white light bathe her then disappear.

"You won't beat me again."

'_No one will.'_

00—00—00

"Draco's go the hots for you."

Jessi sputtered her pumpkin juice all over her friends who grimaced and tried to shield their food from the onslaught of spit and juice. A few other students stared down at them curiously.

"_What_?" gasped Jessi, utterly and completely flabbergasted at the statement. Her brown eyes were as wide as they'd go and she stared avidly between the two, as if it were a joke and one would suddenly scream "GOTTCHA!"

"We're _serious_," they said in unison, "He's totally got it in for you."

"Since when did you become _Draco Malfoy_ experts?" asked Jessi warily over her breakfast. Her friends exchanged embarrassed glances.

"Well…its kinda the fact…that…" began Bev as she glanced around making sure that no one was listening in, "When we came to see you in the hospital wing Madam Pomphrey wouldn't let us in because...well she said there was someone in there."

Coralline nodded vigorously, "Yeah so we waited…and who came out? _Draco Malfoy!_"

Jessi shook her head in disbelief and forked a sausage. "No way. I'm sure he was just in for a potion for his shoulder. I did…basically rip it from its socket."

Bev and Coralline pouted, upset that Jessi didn't believe them. Bev crossed her arms over her chest. "Jessi, we waited _45 minutes_!"

'**You can't deny facts like that,'** said the Rands.

'_Watch me.'_

"You know, we should tail after him on the Hogsmead trip today. See what he's up to, he tells Crabbe and Goyle everything, we could over hear some juicy news," said Bev with a malicious smile to Coralline who looked visibly happier. Jessi wanted to bang her head off the golden plate before her.

"_No way_," groaned Jessi, "You'll get me into even more trouble with him if you get caught!"

"Awe, come on Jessi," urged Bev, "it'll be so _fun_! Like those American spy movies!"

Jessi shook her head, "I'm not getting into it again if you get caught."

00—00—00

Jessi groaned as she was drug through Hogsmead. Luckily Draco was slippery enough to disappear upon entering. She was now rushing along side her friend in the soft down of the new snow. She had her favorite wool hat with the outrageous green and black puff on top, but her cheeks were still flushed from the cold wind that whipped through the small village.

"_Ugh_, where could he have _gone_?" cried Bev as she kicked a great lump of snow.

"I think we should check the shrieking shack," suggested Coralline and they shrugged together in agreement.

"I'm…I'm going to take a walk in the woods alright?" said Jessi, her friends rolled their eyes and trudged off. She sighed and relaxed a bit, turning towards the outlying forest. A few feet from the entrance of the trees a pair of footsteps lead deep into the deep confines.

Glancing once behind her she entered. Walking beside the footsteps that were much larger than her own petite feet. She wondered who would be walking into a forest when they could be enjoying Zonko's.

Breathing into her hands she trudged on, when the forest came to a stark decline of a shallow, yet large ditch. Creeping up behind a tall dark tree she peered down over the crest.

A lone figure draped in black stood hunched over something. Wisps of bright ash blonde hair peeked out from beneath an expensive looking cap.

'_Draco?'_ Her heart began to palpitate furiously inside her chest and her fingers trembled even more. Her legs urged her to run but Madam Pomphrey's words about not straining herself rang ever clear in her mind. That and she was too afraid that he might see her fleeing. So her eyes stayed glued helplessly to the form. He turned slowly, to look about him and she ducked beneath the trunk of the tree as a ruby red Stupefy spell passed by where her head had just so previously been.

"Who's there?" shouted Draco, "Show yourself!"

Jessi sank to the cold wet ground, her ears pricked beneath her hat to the sound of his shoes crunching through the snow. He was coming closer and closer, she could just imagine the scowl on his beautiful face and the wand clenched in his right hand, pointed at her chest. And of course his eyes, those fearsome grey eyes that hid so much.

"Come out you coward!" yelled Draco once more s he edged around the tree. Jessi almost shielded her eyes as Draco loomed over her. A chill went down her spine.

"_Avada_- Jessi!" whispered Draco, "I almost…"

"I didn't mean to… I didn't know…" whispered Jessi, over taken by the sad defeated look on Draco's face. He looked utterly destroyed and Jessi's heart seized up.

"What are you doing here?" whispered Draco as he pushed his wand into his pocket.

"I was going for a walk…" she began, looking off to the side, "And I found footprints. Naturally I followed them…"

Draco gave a hollow laugh, something that rattled in his chest and sent even more shivers down her spine. She glanced up at him, his hands in his pockets and a cold look on his face.

"Don't follow me around Davis," he said with a blatant stare, "You wouldn't like the things you find that I do."

"Don't _judge_ me by your _standards_," said Jessi coldly, no longer feeling sympathetic. She stood up and brushed snow from the seat of her pants, a scowl on her soft features. Piercing brown eyes where concerned ones had one. She didn't see him move, though she should have, that's why she'd trained so hard.

He had her pinned up to the tree with a hand to her throat, not squeezing, but not simply holding either. Grey eyes flashed so close to her own she could count his soft, dark lashes, but she was more concerned with what was coming out of his mouth.

"Don't talk of _judgment_ with me Davis," he hissed, "I'm not in the mood."

"When are you ever in any mood but a pissy one?" she spat back, grabbing onto his arm tightly and for a little they fought over who had the tighter grip.

"Don't act like you know me," he snarled as he jerked away from her, his pale face flushed with red. His breath crystallized in the air around them, he was severely worked up.

Jessi didn't rub her throat; she wasn't going to let him know that he might have hurt her. She wasn't there to boost his ego, or stroke it in anyway but backwards.

"Don't act like you know me then!" she snapped at him. Her red hair flaming about her head as she re-adjusted her hat.

Draco didn't say anything, she half expected him to blurt one of her own life secrets but he stayed quite. Staring at her queerly.

"I know more that what you think," he muttered as he turned his back on her and began walking away.

Outraged Jessi ran after him, grabbing him and turning him to stare at her, gripping his arm in a death grip.

"What in the world could you possibly know about me?" she asked lividly.

Draco jerked out of her grip and leaned in close to her face. She backed up but he caught her arm, pulling her closer, albeit with difficultly. She stared at him warily; her mouth open to protest, but he caught her to it.

"I know that you will _never_ beat me again," he whispered, his voice soft, gentle but it stabbed her like a knife in the gut, "Because you can't stand to see those around you in pain."

Jessi swallowed thickly as he began to release her. Thoughts running through her mind so fast she felt numb all over. She didn't even feel his warm hands leave her cold body.

He walked away from her steadily, he didn't even glance back. She wasn't even sure why she felt so bad, but her knees hit the cold ground hard. And reality smacked her keenly across the face.

'_No!'_

Spell Glossary:

Expelliarmus- is used to tear the wand out of opponent

Diffindo- tears seams/rips off something

Finite Incantatem- negates spells

Unimandibilies- glues the mouth shut and silences the voice-box completely

Duro- makes and objects hard

Impedimenta Maxima- maximum binding

If I forgot any let me know. I think I'm going to take a wee bit of a break on this till Christmas break. Review and let me know what you think.


	5. Chapter 5 Cold

Merry Christmas! Enjoy the newest chapter and thank you so much to everyone who reviewed! You guys keep me going!

I only own my characters.

00—00—00

_But you won't take away my pride  
No, not this time  
Not this time  
_

Shuddering, the cold creeping in from all parts of her body, numbing the nerves and destroying the heat, the life beneath the skin, she quivered shortly. Her lips were a soft, sky blue and her once glistening eyes were glazed, milky with the cold. It was futile, but the instinctive nature of the inborn life keeps the body moving, despite the weakness of the soul.

"Give no chance to thy enemy," she whispered her breath barley visible, "Give no hope to thy enemy."

And so on. Lying quietly in the downpour of snow that dappled her hair and began to collect on her eyelashes, she repeated the most basic of Rands proverbs. Over and over again, as if they would save her from her demise.

"Pity not thy enemy, gift only swift death…"

"Predator and prey, lest you forget your purpose…"

"Give no hope to thy enemy…"

"Love not thy enemy, for thy enemy loves thy not…"

She didn't know why she didn't move, only that she couldn't, not that her joints had frozen or her spirit was broken, but she couldn't move. She had resigned, in a delirious half-slumber, to her untimely fate.

Then, amidst the white, the ever present winter bite, a stroke of black appeared, like a great brushstroke on a blank canvas. Eyelids fluttered, sending soft white feathers cascading to the ground, to mingle with their brothers…

Rands did not believe in salvation other than their own.

00—00—00

"You found her in the forest?" said the hushed voice of Serverus Snape as he rather intimidating bowed over Draco as he dusted the snow from his shoulders and glowered at the older man.

"I said that already," hissed Draco, the only light of the room, a flickering fire who had seen better hours, cast deep shadows across his soft features, making them chiseled and dark. His grey eyes held a fire, deep and unabashed.

"You've heard of the Bell girl I imagine?" asked Snape, his dark eyes raking through Draco, "And now Davis…What are you up to?"

"It's none of your business," spat Draco as he heaved on his robes. He did not want to dwell any of the happenings of the school, especially nothing about Davis.

Snape grabbed his shoulder and spun him towards him, leaning his crooked nose down into the boy's face.

"That was reckless," he whispered, "Davis isn't someone to try to curse, Draco. And Bell isn't very smart either. People are watching you Draco; you're not hiding your footprints very well."

"Leave me alone!" growled Draco losing whatever temper he'd been hiding, "I'm fine!"

Slamming the door to the dungeons Draco seethed his way into the Slytherin common room. Ignoring all in his path, which parted like the Red Sea, until he was silently hidden beneath the confining blankets of his bed.

00—00—00

_My daughter, I hope you are fairing well and that your mission is not being forgotten. It is most important that you pass on any information that you might have unto us. It will bring not only you, but I as well, great honor. _

_Your father_

_Brass_

Jessi read, and reread her letter over and over, stroking the old barn owl that had delivered it to her. There were no proclamations of love in his letter, and she did not expect any. It was not why he was writing. Her mother had been the one who loved, her father the one to instruct.

Placing the letter in her lap Jessi sighed and looked about the hospital wing. The bittersweet taste of the medicine still hung on her tongue, thick and harsh.

She didn't know what had happened in the forest, she couldn't even remember seeing or talking to Draco. It was just one very large, cold misty scene. The medic-witch had stared at her amazed when she said she couldn't even remember who had brought her in.

"You were babbling all over the place, talking to him," said the nurse, her old eyes wide, "How, my dear, could you not remember?"

But she couldn't, no matter how hard she tried, only numbness and cold remained. And the nurse gave her some warming potion and bid her rest. She had been sitting there for hours, bored.

She made sure that the old witch wasn't listening or watching and conjured up her quill and ink and set to writing her father back. Using the same, apathetic style of writing to assure her father that she was getting to know the Malfoy's son. Even if her own "getting to know" was more like "beating up", it would still suffice to appease the elders.

The old owl hooted happily as it took the letter in its beak and promptly flew off.

Watching the owl fly off Jessi settled down again to sort through her murky thoughts. Closing her eyes and delving back into herself she momentarily forgot the physical world…

Gasping and drawing breath like a drown person she shook and quavered in her cot. A hunter is trained to be able to let go of reality, it helps them if they have been captured and are being tortured, but it comes at a price. Sometimes a hunter did not emerge from such a state. They call this being Lost; there are few ways to regain consciousness after that.

Her memory was just as murky as it had been before, if not more so. She remembered. The whiteness of the snow and the numbing feeling of lying in it, but the slash of black was the only thing that stood out in her memory.

Rubbing her temples she pulled the covers off her bed. The coolness of the floor seeping up from between her socks. She padded to the office, restless and needing to move.

"Can I _please_ leave Madam Pomphrey?" she asked the old witch who had her nose in a novel. The old woman scrutinized her with her beady eyes before shrugging.

"Yes, yes. I suppose you can. With what happened to poor Katie I've been a little restricted," mused the nurse.

Jessi looked puzzled. "Katie as in Katie Bell? What happened to her?" asked Jessi.

The nurse clicked her tongue against her teeth and looked fretful, her eyes darting back and forth and she chose her words carefully.

"Dark days are upon us Miss Davis. First with the Chamber and now this?" she whispered, "She was cursed my dear, touched a pedant so deeply inlaid with Dark Magic it is amazing she survived at all. Bewitched she was. Doesn't remember a thing. That's part of the reason I was asked to keep you so long…"

Jessi looked shocked. "Surely…they don't think _I _did it!?"

The nurse shook her head not but here eyes peered at her Slytherin badge quickly.

"No dear, just though you might be another victim."

But Jessi had an idea whom it might have been.

00—00—00

She hadn't planned to make her accusation public, but when student after student came up to her to ask who had hexed her or to heckle her about it she couldn't help but want to blow up in someone's face.

Her father's letter had stirred inside her, something she'd forgotten. Her duty, her inborn ruthlessness. No longer was she going to let Draco or Pansy and anybody else walk over her. She was going to do her duty and no one would stand in her way.

Draco was sniggering with Goyle and Crabbe when she came upon them. His eyes twinkled at her until he registered the utter infuriated look and a dispassion façade was soon erected.

"What did you do?" she hissed, her cheeks flushing with anger, "Is this some sort of joke?"

"I don't know what you're talking about," sneered Malfoy.

"You know quite well what I'm talking about Draco!" growled Jessi, "You cursed Bell and framed me for it!"

Everyone near to them almost dropped what they were doing to listen in. Draco who had not foreseen such events looked rather abashed.

"Frame you?" he coughed, "Why? Please Davis, I don't' have a clue why that girl was cursed. And if you fell asleep in the snow that's not my fault."

Crabbe and Goyle mimicked her passed out and babbling and after other Slytherins laughed. Jessi, burning with embarrassment grabbed his front collar and yanked him to her face, the crowd gathered around them.

"I saw you in the forest, Malfoy. That much I'm sure of," she hissed. Draco tore her hand from his collar, straightening it meticulously back into shape.

"I was in the forest;" his said slyly, "But I wasn't hexing you Davis."

Jessi grit her teeth and her fists clenched, "So then what were you doing?"

"Saving you."

The murmurs that had been bouncing through the crowd came to a sudden halt. Jessi could have sworn her heart stopped as well.

"S-save me?" she sputtered. Draco looked at her queerly, his composure reserved.

"Yes. I happened across you, babbling madly and dying of the cold and out of the goodness of my heart, I rescued you," he said with a rather rude sneer, "You're welcome Jessi."

"As if I even for a second believe that, one; you'd save anyone and two; you had something in that foul dark pit you call a chest."

Draco winked at his cronies and pulled open his robes dramatically, for a second Jessi thought he was going to embrace her but instead he went off into monologue.

"There you were, snow covering you, barely shivering. Your wand in your pocket and those pink lips of yours as blue as the ocean. Babbling madly and what did I do?" he announced, making sure everyone was paying attention, "I gathered you into that dark pit and carried you to the castle. You didn't have such a problem with my chest then Jessi."

He ended his speech with a wagging of eyebrows and the crowd around them roared with laughter. Jessi's face burnt in shame, she was about to slug him in the face when a sly, quick voice that matched Malfoy's sliced through the laughter.

"And why in the world would you save her?" asked Blaise Zabini as he came down the stairs languidly. Many girls hid behind one another, whispering about him. He paid no heed to them and instead watched Draco face turn from playful, to anger. He on the other hand had a suave smirk of mirth on his face.

"Stay out of this Zabini," commanded Draco.

"I'm just curious," said Zabini with a false innocent, "You seemed to want to kill her last time you two dueled. Or perhaps that was my imagination?"

Jessi stared, amazed at her unusual savior. He stood almost taller than Draco, and his dark skin glowed healthily while Draco's looked rather sick.

Draco stared at him, looking upset, but not fully furious. Apparently he knew Zabini's wit was almost as swift and merciless as his own. And he didn't care whom he directed it at.

"What are you doing?" asked Draco icily.

"Answer the question Malfoy," replied Zabini as he towered over the two of them. Moving them towards the potions room slowly. The crowd followed suit, unable to stop gossiping.

Draco stared at Zabini in the eye before breaking off and looking at Jessi, his eyes stonily. "She owes me," he said curtly, "I did it so not only would she owe me her life…but I'd get a rematch."

Zabini began clapping and no one knew why. He glanced around at everyone, who only stared back puzzled. A few kids hollered back at him, and yet he ignored them.

"Congratulations on your biggest lie ever!" he announced, "Your father would be proud."

Draco sneered at the comment about his father and began to get even more upset, but Blaise wasn't finished just yet, "I on the other hand, believe something different." He peered down at Jessi, his eyes running up and down her form, and she replied with an appalled look which he smirked to.

"I think you fancy her."

The hall erupted into chaos, first from the sound that classes had started and then from Zabini's comment. Jessi stood agape at him, her brown eyes wide and her cheeks still flushed.

Pretending to look at a non-existent watch, Zabini grabbed her hand and steered her past Draco and into the potion's room. Leaving him to come in late.

"See the look on his face, he's so shallow," whispered Zabini in her ear as he sat down next to her. Bev looked over shocked but from Jessi's face she knew the arrangement was not her idea.

"Why did you say that to him?" she asked as they opened their books. Her heart hammered in her chest. Draco was being chastised by Slughorn and was sending gruesome looks in her and Zabini's direction.

"He's so full of himself he wouldn't know what to do if someone actually said something factual to him," answered Zabini nonchalantly.

"True!?" gawked Jessi, "That's not true. That's the farthest thing from the truth that I've ever heard in my life."

Blaise smirked at her, "Now, now, no need to get so feisty, even if it is seriously hot."

Jessi glowered at him as they pretended to listen to Slughorn. She couldn't take her attention from him though, he held so much information, a portal into a world she didn't have access to. A fire grew in her chest, threatening to explode.

"What are you talking about though?" murmured Jessi. Slughorn winked at both of them and Jessi groaned inwardly as Blaise smiled lazily.

"I was put in Slytherin house for one solid reason Jessi," he said softly as so that old man wouldn't hear them, "Do you have any idea what that might be?"

"It's not your honesty," growled Jessi back as she watched Slughorn introduce them to their newest brew. Zabini chuckled darkly.

"No, but that's close. I got in because no matter what I do it has to benefit me."

Jessi peered over at him quickly, her eyes questioning. "How do I fit in there?"

Blaise didn't look like he was going to answer and he wasn't going to get the chance. Slughhorn waddled over to her and smiled down at her.

"Perhaps Miss Davis would like to help me out with the preparing of the ingredients of Le Dormir?" he asked and Jessi knew she couldn't refuse. Draco shot her haughty looks and scoffed at her. She gave him a rude gesture and prayed the class would get over quickly.

00—00—00

The astronomy tower was the highest part of the castle. Where the moon shown brightest and the night seemed to be clearest. Jessi's breath crystallized around her face, cheeks flushed from the run up the stairs and her brown eyes clear.

A chilled October breeze licked at her bare skin, her shoulders prickling and her muscles tensed. Her lips parted slightly, between them a hushed breath escaped.

The old crumbling banister was layered with snow. Pure, untouched and white. One of her pale hands buried itself into it. Surprised at the cold shock that occurred. Clenching her digits around the wet snow she pulled a handful to her face. Behind her, the two enchanted birds tweeted softly in their sleep, buried beneath white and black wing.

The snow crumbled out of her grasp, leaving her hand cold, wet, and red. Staring down at it, the moonlight turning her brown eyes gold, she could feel the hilt of the silver blade of the Warrior in her hand. Something her American brothers and sisters favored over even their wands. Unsatisfied with a simple killing curse, they wished to see their opponents bleed as they died.

"Are we even human?" she asked the chilling wind.

'Only human kind can do what we do,' replied the Rands, it hadn't spoken to her since she'd collapsed, even after her father's letter; her raving subconscious had been eerily quite.

"But are we doing what's _right_?" croaked Jessi, her voice cracking with the freezing cold.

The Rands fell silent once more, and Jessi felt even more alone than ever before. The cold numbed her, like before in the forest.

She knew that Draco had not cured her, knew she hadn't been attacked. Why she had collapsed was because of the one thing she feared above all others.

She had forgotten the Rands, lost herself in her own little world. Too caught up in her own social life to remember why she had been place where she had been to begin with. She had let herself be Jessi Davis for too long, and not Jessikah Rands.

"No," she whispered into the inky night sky. The moonlight shimmering on the frozen landscape of the school. The harshness and unforgiving of winter creeping through her skin, infecting her skin, blood and soul.

She would not forget again. She had pledged to her mother's memory that she would be strong, be brave, and be a Rands that would be remembered for the rest of time. One way or another.

"I will not fail you," she said to the night sky. Stars above her twinkled as a cool breeze wafted up around her, humming with magic the wind brushed the nape of her neck and the backs of her legs. Sweeping over her. Protecting her.

"Haven't you learned you shouldn't play in the cold?" asked Draco, his hands were buried in his pockets and his suit looking crisp and clean. But his eyes heavy with worry and…fear?

Jessi's head turned, her fiery locks dancing in the night like a halo around her soft pale face. Eyes brightened in the night, she studied him, picking her fights.

"Why are you here?" she asked him. He didn't smirk or make any gesture to move. He simply stared, and she did the same. Her eyes reminding him of a hawk's, powerful, always alert. Like she could see through all of his defenses.

"I came here to think," he replied, his voice cold, "And found you."

Jessi swallowed thickly, a shiver ran up her spine. Her feet moved but her eyes didn't. Moving from the center she gave him the space she'd occupied and stiffly he took her place. Staring out at the night sky, his cold pale features seemed to be etched out of marble or maybe ice.

"Why do you always look so strong?" he asked softly. Jessi's eyes widened a fraction.

"It is who I am, who I was raised to be," she replied. Her lips barely moving in the cold.

"You're made out of stone," he said, looking down at her, "But…" he stopped. Words frozen in his throat and a cold wind chapping his lips.

Jessi let herself look puzzled, and took a step forward. Trying to look harmless, "What do you mean?"

"People see you, a cold exterior, bone and muscle," he whispered, his grey eyes now smoldering, "But deep inside…you're a delicate flower."

His eyes crashed into hers.


	6. Chapter 6 Talk to Me

Hey! Wow chapter six already! I'm really amazed I've been able to update so much, usually I don't for like…months! I'm really, really glad! You guys keep me going and you really seem to like the story so I guess I'll keep writing. I'm thinking of making this a two parter, perhaps, like two different stories. We'll see though!

Thank you for all the reviews by the way! Hugs and kisses for all of you.

I only own my own characters.

00—00—00

_How did we get here?  
Well, I used to know you so well  
How did we get here?  
Well, I think I know  
_

-One hour earlier-

'_The truth will never set me free,'_ thought Draco, _'I'm going to die.'_

A thick sob found its way to his lips, his grey eyes clouding with tears. He didn't want to die, but he didn't want to kill.

Did he?

He felt no real connection to his victim, didn't feel the love that perhaps many of his other students did. And certainly there was not loyalty to the man, to the house perhaps, but that was inborn wasn't it?

But to kill?

It was obvious that he had no choice, one life for another. If he failed, he would die and if he prevailed someone else would die in his place. Was it right though?

No, something deep down in him told him that to kill another was wrong. A different level of hatred and deceit, something that he himself didn't posses. Didn't have the guts for.

Thinking about his mission always ended in the same thing, an unwavering sickness and the urge to vomit. He was alone now, thank goodness, hidden inside the Room of Requirement, his own little cubby hole. A hole, that's what he was in, peering out every once in a while to scurry off and be stepped on either by Snape or Harry, the Dark Lord even. And especially Jessi.

She had stomped on him and his pride more times than what he'd like to admit. Her scornful and powerful looks made him feel uneasy. She didn't try, which unnerved him the most. She simply was. Unlike he, who flaunted his own family name, their wealth, their power to obtain the affect he wanted paled in comparison to her brazen gazes.

Draco Malfoy was utterly and completely bowed over by her. He'd met some powerful people, influential people, and frightening people, but one stare from the girl gave him a case of the willies he'd never experienced before. She wasn't scary, per say, but intimidating.

And this infuriated him to no end. No girl, a no name by the way, should ever have given him the edges of fright and worthlessness that she did. Gritting his teeth he wanted to punch the cabinet in front of him, but realized it would only provide more work for him.

Running his fingertips down the outside of the ornate carvings they said something, in runes, a class he'd never taken. He pushed his hair back into place and stared down at the crumpled piece of parchment at his feet. It was smeared a bit, but legible.

It was an old piece of homework, not his own, just one he had snatched from someone. The someone he'd rather not meet, rather not see, regardless of how her form suited him. Draco clutched the handle of the cabinet and squeezed, leaning heavily upon the magical instrument.

He would find her, ask her to help, write her down the runes he didn't know, he didn't understand. Make her help him.

Make her.

Persuade her in anyway possible.

Regardless if his heart was in them or not.

00—00—00

-Present time-

"What are you getting at Malfoy," spat Jessi, her livid brown eyes staring through him, into his soul, past that even perhaps. And yet he refused to let his fear, his anxiety boil to the forefront. He kept his mission in mind.

"I am just telling you what I see," he said coldly, he shifted a bit, his feet growing cold. He didn't understand why she wasn't shaking because of the cold; it was nearly unbearable to him.

"Well you're wrong!" she hissed, "I'm not delicate, I'm not…"

He was surprised when she stopped talking and simply looked at him. Her eyes wavering on him, then settling on the crumpled piece of paper in his hand that he held out to her. They said nothing and she refused to touch it.

"I want you to decode this," he said, "I didn't take ancient runes and you're the only one that knows anything about them."

"And how would you know that?" she said sourly.

"Because I got some of your homework from that class, found it in the Common room," he said, his voice very businesslike, like his father's, "I'd take it that you're better than that Mud-blood Granger when it comes to this."

Jessi was amazed at his hint at flattery, her mouth opened and she snatched the crumbled parchment from his fingers. Opening it and peering at it shortly she looked up at him slightly disgruntled.

"And what's in it for me, because being in your presence more than I have to isn't really a pleasure," she said, a bit harsher that she probably needed to.

"Shame, I thought we would spend hours together," he said sarcastically, unfazed by her words, at least on the outside, "What's in it for you? How about I actually try in our next duel."

That was probably not the thing to say to Jessi, who flung the crumpled paper back at him, hitting him in the chest. She looked ready to explode.

"I've had enough of you! Get away from me!" she shouted, "I'm not helping you, I'm not talking to you, and I'm certainly not-"

Draco's insides seized up as he grabbed her, pulling her in one swift motion against him. His lower back pressing up against the snowy banister, his arms entwining about her waist. His forehead bumping against hers and eyes fluttering in the closeness.

"Would it help if I said please?" he asked softly, with his breath came warmth and the soft scent of peppermint. It came as such a strange shock to Jessi after she'd nearly frozen solid out in the cold. Draco, at least minutely, gave her a solstice of warmth, of comfort.

Something inside of Jessi broke then, shattering into a thousand pieces and crumpled up, un-repairable at her feet. It broke with a feeling of warmth and security that bathed her in a feeling of tranquility she hadn't felt since her mother died.

A new voice erupted inside her, a deeper, more soothing one that the harsh cold one of the Rands that told her what to do. Instead this one suggested instead of told.

'_Who said you ever had to be one person my dear?'_ it was like her mother's voice and how she urged her to go and play with the other muggle children in the snow. Her kind brown eyes staring down at Jessi, only five years old. Her father had told her not to bother with them for they knew nothing of the world they lived in. All of that was too much for a young child to understand, but she was not a child to disobey her father, but her mother told her to, and her mother always knew what was right.

"No," whispered Jessi as she peered up into his eyes, "But promise me one thing."

"Anything Davis."

"You won't ask me where I learned it."

"Only if you don't ask where I got it."

00—00—00

"These are _old_ runes, where did you find them?" she asked in a hushed corner of the Slytherin common room. Draco leaned on the table that Jessi had her scrolls of paper and deciphering codes on. The warm candle light lit up golden highlights in both of their hair and made them look healthier.

Draco gave her a look and she sighed, "Yeah, forgot, no asking." Running a hand back through her hair Jessi gave a long heaving sigh and stared down at the scratchy looking runes that Draco had provided her with.

"You know this would be easier if I actually saw these in person. You can't write runes worth a damn," she said as she held up his crinkled parchment to the light. Draco scoffed.

"You're here to decipher Davis, not criticize," he said sourly as he sat across from her, looking down over her as she scribbled something next to each of the shapes. Her writing was deeply slanted, simple to, but elegant in a way that drew his attention, that and the fact that she soon traded the quill to her other hand and began writing again.

"How can you do that?" he asked, hiding the amazement in his voice as she leafed through a heavily noted upon book. She peered up at him, her red hair falling in on her eyes and catching in the corner of her mouth.

"Do what?" she asked.

"Write with both hands," he said.

"Oh," she said looking down at her writing, "I never noticed that I did that. Lots of people in my family can do that."

"Is your family full of scribes that need to use both hand to write so much?" he asked a bit rudely. Jessi shot him a look.

"No, most have…unusual jobs," she said as she dipped her quill back into the ink, "You need lots of different talents."

"I wouldn't really call that a talent," goaded Draco as he slouched back in his chair.

"Oh? Then what is it?" she asked sharply.

"Its more like a deformity," he said lounging and smirking at her.

"Glad you think so highly of something you're jealous you can't do," said Jessi as she dotted an 'I' at bit too forcefully. Draco gave her an upset look but did not remark.

"I heard your father threw Pansy's uncle in Azkaban," said Draco suddenly after a notable silent lapse.

"…and here I thought we were going to be quiet when I worked…"grumbled Jessi as she dipped her quill in her ink bottle again. Her first line of runes deciphered.

"So he's an auror then?"

"Sort of," said Jessi as she opened a new book up and leafed through it, "He's more of a bounty hunter."

"Same thing," spat Draco rather venomously. Jessi's eyes found his.

"You have a problem with that?" she asked acidic.

Draco looked at her sharply and she returned it in full force. Picking up her quill again Jessi decided to forgo the fight.

Seconds ticked by, the fire flickered and died, leaving the sparse candlelight to give illumination. Draco seemed to have settled into his own thoughts, his blonde hair turning a pale orange in the light. Jessi's already red hair came alive like copper waves.

Giving a soft, yet frustrated noise she ran a hand back through those copper locks. Drawing Draco's attention from his thoughtful silence to her upset demeanor. Throwing herself into the back of her chair her startling eyes fell on him rather pointedly.

"My father only took up the job because my mother was murdered by someone the public though to be a Dark wizard. He has vowed to kill him; his soul has been over taken by the very notion of destroying him. Satisfied?" said Jessi all at once. Draco looked a little taken back by her sudden outburst. His grey eyes searched hers.

"Was it Voldemort?" he asked finally, his voice a faint whisper and the mention of the name bringing a shiver over his skin.

Jessi scoffed and crossed her arms over her chest, her face a mask despite her truthfulness. The room reflected the conversation in its dark confines.

"As if my mother would have attracted the attention of the Dark Lord," she spat "I do not know who the murderer is."

"_Why_?" asked Draco, leaning forward, intrigued.

Jessi's ember like eyes met his, burning like hot coals. Her soft lips pulled taunt into a line and the flickering candle light turning the soft curves of her face into sharp contours. Hawk-like in a way.

"Because it's my father who has vowed to kill him, not I," she said simply, "my father lives for the day he will destroy him. Why should I be the one to take that from him?"

Draco look stunned at her lack of emotion, her apathetic tone of voice. As if she cared not for vengeance or justice that he sought so willingly. Vengeance on his enemies, and justice for his pride.

"It is your _mother_!" argued Draco, his fists clenching, "How can you _not_ want to kill him?"

Jessi's eyes bored into his, and he could feel that he had said something wrong, assumed when he should have known. He could not dismiss the feeling as though he hurt her, and in his rather empathetic mood he felt guilty, and a bit sad.

"Do not think that I do not hate him _Draco Malfoy_," she hissed as she slammed her books shut, "Do not judge _me_ by _your_ standards."

And with those acidic words Jessi disappeared into the girl's dormitories.

Not one of his muscles moved, it was as if he'd been turned to stone. Inside his chest his heart raced, hammering to itself, the only noise in the room. A soft sheen of sweat broke out on his forehead and his shoulders trembled.

'_Do not judge me by your standards!'_

It was as if she lived in a different world.

00—00—00

'**Trick him into fooling all of his secrets, destroy him from the inside out!'** cried the Rands.

'_He is still human, he makes mistakes we all do,'_ said the new voice.

'**He is the enemy!'** howled the Rands.

Jessi clutched her head, torn between what was right and what was expected of her. She bit her lips, pulling back the sobs that threatened to escape. Her eyes screwed shut and her body trembling.

'_Save him my dear, my love, my soul,'_ whispered the voice.

'**Destroy him my tool, my strength, my power,'** whispered the Rands.

Tears rolled out of her eyes, running down her cheeks and laying in her lashes. Trickling down onto her shoulder, making the Rands tattoo quiver and its tendrils to curl and entwine around her skin.

Sleep came slowly, but steadily, coming in from the corners of her vision, engulfing her. And within minutes she was standing somewhere else, in a dream, a vision.

It was a dark alley and a sparse lighting filtered down from above, leaving whitish streaks through the air, obscuring her sight, but the figure in front of her was unmistakable.

He took a few steps forward, a messy mop of black hair falling down into his eyes and a half smoked cigarette hanging from his lips. A tailored trench coat was secured about him, the belt glittering with metallic studs and his boots only made noise when the metal braces touched the cobblestones.

Zenith Rands's immortal eyes gazed down at her; champagne colored orbs stared out at her behind milky white skin.

"Child…my child," he whispered, his voice silk like but rasping. Age had converted his voice, but not his body.

Lithe footsteps behind Jessi made her turn her eyes from her ancestral father. Her red hair swaying out of time with everything else. A woman stood before her, the light hitting her own orange hair and bouncing off of it with an angelic aura.

"Hello Jessi," said the woman, her brown eyes like brass, shimmering and smiling with warmth.

"Who are you?" she asked, turning and looking between Zenith and the girl. Her body felt like it was underwater and her movements were sluggish.

Zenith flicked his cigarette to the ground and stomped the last embers out, his shining eyes flickering back and forth between the two women. His finger twitching and finding the buckle of the jacket, letting it fall open. His tattooed chest peering out from beneath the black folds, but that was not what struck Jessi; it was the twin silver witchblades that were strapped to him and the swirling pointed decorations that were engraved in his skin seemed to be reflections of each other.

"The arrows of Rands…" whispered Jessi in amazement her eyes wide to their beauty and the humming of the magic inlaid in both of them.

"Who are you who dare invade my daughter's mind?" asked Zenith in his rasping voice to the woman behind Jessi. She laid one hand upon Jessi's shoulder and Jessi realized she hadn't seen her move that close to her and as she peered up into the woman's face it dawned on her who she resembled.

"M-mother?" she gasped, her limbs beginning to shake. The woman did not look down at her though, instead she continued to stare at Zenith, a calm demeanor in her speech and expression.

"I am Truth, and Love," she said, "where you are Courage and Power. We now balance each other out, at last. In this one child."

"Never!" snarled Zenith, "A warrior must always be cunning and commanding. Such weakness of love and the such, there is no room for it."

"You will not tell Jessi who she must be."

Zenith gave a cold laugh as he drew one of the long, sickle like blades, opals in the handles glittered in the light. A mad light in his eyes.

"Witchblades will not hurt those of its kind without reason," said the woman as she put out her palms, each with mark much like an arrow on both hands that curled up behind her sleeves, "Nor will they hurt that who created them."

Zenith hissed and Jessi stared between them.

"Who _are_ you?" she asked softly, her eyes wide.

The woman finally looked down at her, a smile gracing her lips and her eyes soft.

"In time you will find out who you are, but for now trust yourself, all of yourself. See with both eyes and not just the ones you were taught to see with. Protect and Serve. Unite and Fight."

"I don't understand!" cried Jessi and both of the specters walked up to her, each placing a hand on the side of her face. Forming an X with their wrists, the woman's skin was warm whereas Zenith's was cold, the sensation traveled through her, sinking in like ink in water. Billowing out and diluting one another, till neither one was as recognizable as the second.

"You are both of us Jessi," said the woman, her voice distorted as if she were underwater. Zenith's hollow rasping laugh echoed in Jessi's mind as the scene faded…

…into another.

A slight, wisp of an autumn wind rustled through her hair, lifting the orange and red locks up to tumbled about. Her hair was longer and she was older, a bit taller and her eyes held a stoniness that she didn't have now. She peered down at her older self, unsure what to think.

She was wearing a hooded sweatshirt and a pair of tight and hole ridden jeans that showed off more skin that they hid. The sweatshirt was somewhat baggy, but Jessi could make out the outline of knives in her shoulder holsters.

The older Jessi suddenly pulled her hood up and took a few steps closer to the entrance of the alleyway she was hidden in, pressing herself up against the old grimy bricks she hid from the people passing by. The ground was littered with puddles and she glanced down in one before she took out around the corner, to make sure she wasn't being followed.

She moved quickly and smoothly between the people on the streets, her pale cheeks flushed and her breathing quick and silent between her lips. Eyes like champagne glittered out from beneath her fiery locks.

'_I'm…I'm a fully Coded Rands,'_ thought Jessi as she watched herself duck into another alley, watching if she was followed, paranoia becoming routine. The door she shouldered into gave way easily and Jessi was able to peer down inside.

The Jessi who was carrying knives had a man by his throat, pushing him up against the wall, his hand grabbing for her wrists but falling short as she choked the life out of him. Her facial expression did not change.

"Tell me where he is," she whispered, her voice sending shivers down her spine; it was devoid of all emotion. Flat, businesslike, hunter-like.

The man pointed up, to the stairs and room above. The other Jessi threw him against a wall roughly, swung her hand at the door that magically shut itself and drew one of her knives.

In the pale lighting the silver glittered and shined unearthly. Its wicked curved blade and the knot work on the handled revealed it as the one her father owned. Jessi swallowed as she watched her older self, full of power and litheness grip the knife and start up the stairs.

She was not in England, that much she was sure of, America perhaps judging by the accents but the Italian man she met at the top of the stairs certainly wasn't domestic.

They exchanged no words but instead began to fight it out. There were no spells, no charms or curses. Just hand to hand combat and the selective and decisive slashes of the Witchblade.

Jessi's victim fled, leaping out of a window and landing with ease on the street below. As she watched Jessi's own heart beat in sync with her doppelganger's, the thrill of the hunt taking over.

She leapt out the window after him, landing with just as much ease and broke out in full run after him. Kicking off the corner wall to propel herself around the corner without sliding like he had. Dashing down the sidewalk she hid her weapon and the hood of her sweatshirt fell back. She looked like a sleek panther chasing after her prey.

'_My prey…'_ thought Jessi as she was transfixed to the sight. The man was fast and the crowds soon began to part to let them through, he glanced behind himself many times at the she-hunter who pursued him and his stamina was waning.

Jessi's wasn't though, she hardly looked winded and her eyes glowed with the fire of the hunt, she dashed around a street vendor, kicked over a few boxes to run up them and then leapt out into the street.

Coming down hard on her victim, cars began swerving out of the way and started honking nosily at the intrusion. Jessi smiled wickedly and pulled her prey to his feet, he growled at her as she twisted her fingers into his black hair.

Overhead a hawk screeched and the scene faded into oblivion.

00—00—00

Jessi woke up somewhat confused, her body felt like it was on fire, burning and festering and movement was the only thing that would stop it. She got up and put on some clothes that she randomly grabbed; glancing in the mirror her eyes widened and her breath came out in one long sudden stream of breath.

"Wow Jessi those are some really cool pants, where did you get them?" asked Bev as she looked enviously on at Jessi's ensemble.

"I…I don't know," she whispered as she looked at the jeans littered with holes. Her pale white skin came through underneath them; her muscle's bunching and relaxing peacefully snug inside the fabric.

"We'll their hot," mused Bev as she tried to brush out her mop of hair, "I'd kill to have a pair."

Jessi smiled a bit as she looked down at them wherever they came from. Pulling on a long-sleeved shirt she made her way to get her shoes.

"Your hair is getting long Jessi, you going to get it cut?" asked Bev behind her.

Jessi twirled a lock around her finger; the tips brushed her shoulders, something that hadn't happened in a while. "No, I think I'm going to grow it out a bit." The thought of the dream of her older self came back to her, the power and fever of the hunt washing over her, making her toes curl and her skin to prickle.

"Hey did anyone ask you to the Yule Dance yet?" asked Bev as she tied on her old Chucks. Jessi looked up at her puzzled.

"No…why?" asked Jessi, she felt penned up inside the rooms; she wanted to be outside, regardless of the weather.

"Well I just assumed that someone had asked," said Bev, obviously hinting that Jessi ought to have been asked by now if she weren't some weirdo.

"I'm not big into dances and stuff," said Jessi simply as she exited the dormitories. She passed a few others lounging in the Common Room, but most were out watching Quidditch practice or in the Great Hall on a Saturday morning. Which left most of the grounds open to some wandering, as long as she didn't alert any teachers to it.

She was just sneaking out towards Hagrid's hut when she rounded a corner and bumped into someone. She peered up at him amazed and slightly startled.

"Jessi, how nice to see you this morning," drawled Blaise Zabini as his dark eyes bored down into his, "What are you doing out this early? Looking for Draco perhaps?"

Jessi's brows furrowed, "No. I'm not."

Zabini smirked and his eyes glittered with mirth, "He's looking for you though."


	7. Chapter 7 The Fire Inside Us

Wow, a fat ole chapter seven! I can't believe it! This is the longest so far! I listened to a lot of electric music by Owl City while writing this. So don't blame me if it gets a little…weird. Thank you for all the reviewer and for my special friend who helped me plot this out when I couldn't tell Lexi. Love you all.

I only own my own characters.

00—00—00

_The truth is hiding in your eyes  
And it's hanging on your tongue  
Just boiling in my blood  
_

Jessi stared at Zabini coldly. "No offense, but your jokes are bad."

Shrugging Zabini gave a low chuckle. "You seem to be the only one other than Draco himself who doesn't think their funny."

"Great! I love to find myself bunched in a group with him," she said sarcastically as she tried to move past him. Zabini reacted quicker and snatched her back by her elbow.

"Now, now it's not kind to leave during a conversation Jessi. Didn't your parents tell you that?" said Blaise as he leaned over her.

"Why are you out here this early anyway?" asked Jessi trying to change the subject.

"I'd like to ask you the same thing."

Jessi gave a strangled noise as she searched for a retort. Zabini on the other hand chuckled deeply again.

"Well before you go running off I'd like to give you something to think about," he said with a sly edge in his voice. He leaned in as not to be overheard. "I assume you have gotten your invitation to Slughorn's party as well as I, and as much as I'd love to go to such an even I am particularly picky about whom I go with."

Jessi felt something move in her stomach and it certainly wasn't butterflies.

"I follow…"

"Good. Since you seem to be the only girl who can shake off my dazzling charm how about we go together…as friends," he suggested, and at the appalled look Jessi gave him rephrased, "Or err…acquaintances."

"Zabini I appreciate your suggestion-"

"Trust me it's for my own gain."

"Yeah, whatever," drawled Jessi, "But I don't _do_ dances _or_ parties or anything like that. I'm a girl, not a show dog."

Zabini looked a bit put out but not crushed, "Come now Jessi, live a little."

Jessi shoved by him, her legs cramping a bit from the cold as she stomped away. Embarrassed and mute at the thought of dressing up…

"You'd go if Draco asked you wouldn't you?"

Jessi stopped in her tracks, her eyes wide and her hair flaming about her like a banshee. "_What_?" she hissed over her shoulder, but Zabini had vanished. Kicking snow Jessi trudged on unhappily. The contented feeling she'd had that morning was gone.

'_I would never…'_

00—00—00

Putting off her Charms homework she headed down to Hogsmead with a rather large group of students. She had brushed of the morning's events and convinced herself she wouldn't let some conceited Blaise Zabini put her down for the day. Tucked under one arm she had an old tattered tome that had been scribbled in over the ages and small pieces of note paper peeked out from its yellowed pages. Along with the book she had a few folded pages of parchment.

'_Would I sound like a dork if I said I'm having fun deciphering this?'_ she thought to herself with a smile. People chattered around her nosily, but she was caught up in her own little world for the moment. Happy about the freedom and the ability to choose what she wanted to do when she wanted to do it.

'_Totally opposite of what I ought to be doing I suppose,'_ she thought, her father expected her to have top marks, and skipping out on some homework certainly wasn't the way to get that. But at the moment grades didn't matter to her, big fat snowflakes fell from the grey sky and dappled her hair and coat.

'_Bliss_,' she thought, '_that's what this is.'_

Someone shouldered her and she stumbled a bit, clutching her book to make sure it didn't fly out of her grasp and get wet in the snow. Regaining her balance she saw Pansy and Mildred smirking rudely in her direction, arm in arm heading towards the Three Broomsticks.

Dusting herself off Jessi didn't let them get the better of her. She checked her belongings and continued on towards the Three Broomsticks herself, content with the knowledge she'd get a seat far away from them.

Opening the creaky door the scents of dust and butterbeer met her nose, whisking her away to a secret world where their teenage memories were sown. She smiled at the bartender even though she didn't know his name as she knocked the snow from her boots and headed towards the closest corner seat that wasn't occupied by snogging couples.

Pale dreary light came in through the dusty and dirty window and provided just enough light to read by. The seat was cold but she didn't mind, she unzipped her coat a bit and put her book and paper on the table as she made herself comfortable. The old white candle that flickered peacefully in the middle gave off a little heat but the room still held a little of the chill of winter.

A waiter came over and took her order, one tea two sugar. Jessi didn't have a sweet tooth enough for butterbeer and coffee was too strong for her. She smiled at him as he brought it to her, her face feeling funny at the action and it was the realization that she didn't smile often that brought a pang of loneliness to her.

Shoving it away she opened her book up, the small print and old markers bringing back memories and washing away the unpleasantness of her life.

00—00—00

Draco allowed himself some time to himself for once; time not spent working on his project. By all means it dominated his thought process, but at least he was acting like it was. He'd agreed to spend some time with Pansy at the Three Broomsticks, something he wasn't sure if it was relaxation or a whole new form of work.

She looked so pleased to see him, even with his pale pallor and paranoid glances. He made sure that he saw everyone in the room before he sat down, his eyes drawn over Pansy's shoulder at the redhead who sat alone.

With her head bowed over her books she looked caught up in whatever she was reading, calmness and serenity radiating off of her. So many times he'd seen her, mostly upset and angry, to see her happy made him freeze for a moment. Take a breath quickly.

"What are you looking at Draco?" asked Pansy languidly, she didn't much care as long as his attention would return to her and stay on her.

"Nothing," he said and settled down in his chair, trying not to glance over at her.

Minutes passed and he found the simple banter that Pansy provided to be slightly refreshing although repetitive and dull. He talked only a little, letting her control most of the conversation, while he studied the people around them and tried to look interested.

"Yeah, I'd like to go see them play again," he said shortly as he sipped his butterbeer, the sweat taste settling on his tongue thickly. His eyes wandering over to her again.

'_I wonder what she's thinking…'_ he thought, _'so caught up in whatever she's doing… probably homework…she's taking notes.'_

"Draco are you listening?" asked Pansy as she leaned forward, puckering her lip in frustration at his lack of attention.

"Of course, what were you saying now? Your father has Box Five seats?" he said to keep the conversation going. Jessi tucked some hair behind her ear and Draco found himself watching her hand move the hair with great interest.

'_She's translating the runes,'_ his mind came up the observation quickly, _'she's finishing up whatever I gave her last night…'_

He couldn't believe it. He was sure that he'd upset her to the point where she wouldn't dare touch them ever again. But there she was, translating them with a smile on her face. He swallowed thickly, anticipation beading on his forehead in the form of sweat. His secret burning through his chest like a hot brand, he wanted to talk to her, to explain to him what she knew, teach him, anything, just to feel like he knew what he was doing was going to succeed.

"Draco!" groaned Pansy, "Why aren't you listening to me?"

She whined so loudly that not only their nearby neighbors heard them, but Jessi was knocked out of her intense studies to look up. Her dazzling brown eyes meeting with his frantic grey ones, in almost…tenderness? Then when the knowledge that Pansy was making quite a face in her direction stoniness came over them.

"Ugh, what is _she_ doing here?" snarled Pansy as she turned back to Draco who shook his head and looked back at her, a drowsy look on his face. She scowled at him.

"She's so weird!" exclaimed Pansy, "I don't know _why_ you keep looking at her."

"Its nothing," said Draco as he stared into his butterbeer, finding that the color of it was the same as highlights in her eyes.

Pansy sighed noisily and grabbed his hand, which he had to stop from flinching.

"She can't give you what I can," she whispered, her expression hiding nothing.

'_I wouldn't be so sure about that,'_ he thought to himself, on the outside he simply smirked, which was good enough for Pansy.

Jessi watched them, a cold stone forming in her stomach, she didn't much care that Pansy was talking about her or that Draco had even noticed her, but when Pansy muttered those few words meant only for him to hear the hair on the back of her neck stood on end. Her pen tensed in her hand and she bit her lip. Rage consuming her.

'_Fight it like she would, down and dirty,'_ sang the soft voice in the back of her mind. Making her muscles relax and her frown to ease.

Oh she would, she'd make her wish she'd never, ever; put an invisible claim on Draco Malfoy. Ruefully a plan formed in Jessi's head to make not only Pansy unhappy, but Draco want her.

Wait.

'_Want me?'_ her mind choked out as she froze, _'I did not just…'_

'_Oh my dear, young love…'_ whispered the soft voice.

'_Don't even go there; it's not in the _least_ funny.'_

'_I wasn't trying to be funny my dear,'_ said the voice as it laughed a bit and Jessi found herself cutting off chuckles.

'_I'm going insane…'_ she though as she inwardly groaned.

'**Insanity is not for those who can perceive the sane,'** said the Rands who had, until this moment, been blissfully silent.

Jessi sighed and leaned back in her chair, her peripheral vision betraying the cold grey eyes of Draco watching her again. Staring intently at her like a dog would fresh meat. Shivers ran down her spin and she found herself clutching her rune book and staring back. Her heart hammering in her chest and temples.

'_What a wonderful prize he would be,'_ giggled the voice.

'_Oh would you _Shut Up_?'_ growled Jessi.

'_Not unless you do something my dear,'_ it replied.

'_But…I don't want to. I don't want his attention I don't…'_

"_Stop looking at her_!" snapped Pansy again; Draco's fingers had turned white as he clutched his mug with a feral look. He looked about ready to bounce out of his skin, explode everywhere. Something stirred inside of Jessi, she wanted to see him explode, to scream and shout and rant. To see the very essence of the Slytherin Prince Draco Malfoy.

'_That's my girl,'_ whispered the voice which Jessi had named Mischief as it faded into her conscious.

Scribbling madly on a torn piece of parchment she gathered her things, clutching the paper in one hand and her hat and book in the other she walked deliberately towards the table. She could feel the eyes of many of the patrons on her as she moved, every muscle straining itself so it would be seen. For the first time in her life Jessi tried to be as beautiful and seductive as she could, working everything she knew how to.

Draco's eyes pierced through her so hotly that she was sure she would fall over any moment yet her feet continued to move in the same swift and powerful stride she'd seen her Aunt Chia do to make her prey put down their guard. Her eyes glued to his as she moved, he didn't take in her body, her eyes held enough for him.

Drifting right up to the edge of the table she didn't even glance at Pansy, the hushed and held breath of the room creating a magical weave that could not be broken except by the two who wove it.

The edges of her jacket and scarf brushed his shoulder and she opened her palm, the folded paper falling into his lap silently. Jessi continued walking till she got to the door, turning suddenly so her back was to it. She stared at the blonde hair of the back of his head till he turned to look at her. Moving slowly, languidly, like a great jungle cat.

Their eyes met again and she smiled a bit as she pushed the door open, moving backwards until she was outside and the door came between their view.

The Three Broomsticks eased once more into the easy and relaxed grace it had, had previously. But not all of its patrons were as easily swayed as Pansy Parkinson.

"That _Bitch_!" she snarled as she lunged for her coat to leave. Draco looked at her skeptically, one hand holding his mug, much gentler now, the other twirling the old parchment in his fingers, savoring the feeling of the old paper.

"Leave her alone Pansy," he said as he fingers worked to open up the little note. Pansy's face was flushed and she was puffing up like a great porcupine, Draco found the courage to chuckle at her.

'_Open me, step inside, fall to depths where you may reside.'_

_-Shrieking shack at twilight- _Jessi

Draco smiled down at the piece of paper and refolded it; ignoring Pansy's tantrums he tucked the note away in one of his inner pockets as he stood up.

"Thank you for the afternoon, I have business to attend to."

00—00—00

"What am I doing? What am I doing? _What am I doing_?" moaned Jessi as she hid out on the basement steps of the shrieking shack. Above her a ghost was slamming a door repeatedly.

'_You're living your life,'_ said Mischief.

'_I'm being a fool. He's not going to show up and even if he does what do I do?'_ she asked herself.

'_You'll show him you've translated it, explain how its spotty and you're missing pieces,'_ said Mischief with a discerning accuracy.

"Did I really need to call him out on it though?" she huffed as she kicked snow from her boots. Her pale face flushed, but not just from the cold. She didn't know what to do; she knew that whatever she was feeling, it wasn't good. Draco Malfoy was, almost certainly, linked with dark magic and she could not risk being involved unless it meant…

'**Unless you plan to stop him,'** the Rands provided.

Jessi looked up into the grey sky that was right; she couldn't do anything unless she was going to stop him along the way. Jessi Davis wasn't a user of Dark Magic, nor was she one to support it.

'**So stop the kid where he stands,'** growled the Rands.

'_I don't even know what he's planning,'_ argued Jessi; it was like an empty hole in her knowledge. She could translate runes all day and in the end still have nothing, and she wanted something. Like she had felt in the Three Broomsticks, she had felt a want, a fullness that she couldn't find anywhere.

'_Is he serious about never telling me where these are?'_ she thought as she ran her cold fingers of the binding of her book, _'Is it that much of a secret? Is he such a secret?'_

'**He has no reason to trust you,'** said the Rands, **'Yet.'**

Jessi bit her lip, hard, almost enough to draw blood. _'Yet?'_

'**You could make him trust you.'**

Jessi's fingernails bit into the old binding of the book, her stomach seizing up. Months ago thinking of something like that wouldn't have done anything to her. She wouldn't have been soft enough to consider anything else, anything but her duty.

'_How far have I fallen?'_ she though in remorse.

'_No my child,'_ said Mischief, _'how far you've grown.'_

"I thought you'd be waiting inside or out front, luckily I was able to follow your footprints," said Draco from the outcropping above the steps. Looking up quickly Jessi was temporarily blinded by the thick snowflakes that fell, the whiteness blinding and the darkness of his outline striking.

"I was waiting…where I wasn't going to get hit with snow," she said as he trotted down the incline. Dusting the snow from his shoulders, she stood up and they just stared at each other.

"You've learned you shouldn't play in the snow then?" he mocked playfully. His grey eyes were shielded, but there, beneath the surface was the hunger she saw in the Three Broomsticks. A ravenous look.

"Do you want these or not?" she said with a slight edge in her voice as she waved the parchment in front of his face, "because if you're going to be an ass I'll just go burn them."

Draco looked like a cat you rubbed backwards; he immediately lost all of the playfulness he might have had previously. The hungry look flashing over his features, biting his pale lips and studying her from underneath his angular eyebrows.

"Get inside," he ordered and Jessi rolled her eyes but complied and opened up the old building with a simple spell. The door creaked open noisily and the wind howled in the rooms upstairs but it was a good enough place to trade information.

Jessi went about the room and lit the sparse candles in the room, turning the icy looking furniture and wallpaper, aged, faded, and covered with dust, to a warm looking room in spots at least. She turned, across the room, to look over at Draco who still stood with his hat on and his jacket buttoned up. Jessi had unzipped hers a bit, to relax, even if it was just a visage. She wasn't sure if she could ever really relax around him.

Draco's eyes moved from her to above them, he held out his wand and murmured something. Jessi's eyebrows pinched at the center.

"What are you doing?" she hissed.

"I'm checking to make sure there's no one else in here," he replied just as stonily. Once his spell had concluded that there was in fact no one else there he turned his eyes back to Jessi.

"Do you have that note I gave you," asked Jessi softly, trying valiantly to hide her embarrassment.

"Yes," said Draco as he removed it from his pocket, "But I don't see what it has to do with the runes."

Jessi glared at him, he was impatient and getting cranky.

"The first line of it is my rough translation," she answered, "It's…vague, since runes can mean more than one thing. And since yours were rather crude to begin with I could have gotten mixed up somewhere through."

"'_Open me, step inside, fall to depths where you may reside.'_" Recited Draco, "That sounds right."

Only then he realized he'd said a little too much than what he first intended to. Jessi's brown eyes bore into him, dying to be told what the secret was.

"Ok," she said slowly, "I have another line, but you only copied half of it."

"What is it?" asked Draco hastily as he stuffed the note in his pocket and came over to the old desk Jessi had her book and parchment out on. Around the parchment he had given her was that soft slanted writing of her notes. The book on the other hand, had many different styles of writing inside of it. She had it open to a page where a small alphabet lay open and many scribbles of runes not included littered the pages.

"It doesn't make much sense," said Jessi as she tried to shake off her nervous feeling as she worked through her parchment. One page falling open to the translated. They both snatched at it at the same time, fingers brushing. They stared at one another in amazement before Jessi broke the eye contact and took it up before her.

"'_Hide or Run. Within my…_' It appears to be 'door' but I can't tell since the runes for door also are the same as fourteen other words," she said looking down at the paper, biting the side of her finger gently in her frustration. "If I could have the rest of the runes…then we'd have a better idea."

"We?" said Draco haughtily, "No. This is mine. You just translate these and then forget all about it."

"Don't tell me what to do," growly Jessi as she slammed the parchment down on the dusty desk, "I've had enough of you trying to tell me what to do."

"It's for your own good," said Draco softly as he looked away from Jessi. Angry now Jessi didn't like him trying to be noble, she'd rather an angry Draco over a noble one any day.

Grabbing the front of his shirt she pulled him over the side of the desk, coming up in his face. "Don't act noble to me Malfoy, and don't act superior."

"Get your hands off me…" threatened Draco as he grabbed her hand, but he found himself melting into her skin. Even though it was ridged and tight, it was smooth and soft, and most importantly, warm. They looked up at each other slowly, before leaping apart.

"What are you trying to do?" snapped Jessi, "I'm translating runes for you when I don't even know where they're from, I'm constantly being harassed and embarrassed by you and your little group and now you're trying to seduce me?!"

The words came out of her mouth so fast she didn't even remember why she was talking in the first place. It was just that the hammering in her heart made her legs feel like water and his eyes seem like endless pits she'd like to gaze in all day.

"I'm trying to…" roared Draco, but the sound died in his throat. He couldn't tell her what he was trying to do, she would end him. He was sure of it.

"That's what I thought," snarled Jessi as she slammed her book shut. "The Great Draco Malfoy can't tell anyone anything else he ends up like his _stupid father_."

Jessi didn't expect the spell he hit her with, a spell that threw her back against the old wall hard, moldy wallpaper falling on top of her. Gasping for the air that had been knocked out of her lungs she stared through her disheveled hair and strips of old flowered paper, her mouth open and sucking air, and the look on her face utterly amazed.

"D-don't insult my father," snarled Draco as he pointed his wand at her face, but he was shaking so badly it hardly stayed focused on her. His face had contorted in blind rage, his steel grey eyes glistening, and the mad look on his face again.

'_What have I done?'_ he thought helplessly, _'what am I doing?'_

Jessi slowly got to her feet. She didn't dare go for her own wand. He'd curse her dead before she ever got close. Her throat was dry and words were lost inside her. She wasn't about to apologize and along with her breath, her anger seemed to have leveled out.

'_I so- deserved that,'_ she thought ruefully as she staggered to her feet.

'**Not being on your guard, of course you did,'** snapped the Rands.

"Put your wand down Draco," said Jessi softly, but firmly, "I'm not going to fight."

"I never thought I'd find the time when you'd drop out of a fight," sneered Draco, but his words were shaking and he shook with his insecurity.

"You don't want to fight," said Jessi softly as she came back towards him and the desk. Walking around debris and over broken floorboards. "And I don't either."

Draco didn't say anything but he bit his lip and stared at her, his blonde hair glistening in the sparse light and a sheen of sweat evident on his forehead.

Slowly Jessi reached forward and laid her hand atop his shuddering and shaking one. Staring into his eyes, trying to radiate calmness, she lowered his wand. His icy skin shocking her warm one.

"Give me the rest of the runes so I can translate them," she said delicately as she let go of him. She took her eyes from him for just a moment as she gathered up her things and held out the translated ones to him.

Draco was confused and weary, last time he'd cursed her she'd gotten him back tenfold. He was sure she was going to kill him for cursing her, but instead she tried to calm him. Go around it. He felt cold all over and he just wanted to cry, but his pride wouldn't let him. She would not know the pain and turmoil he was in. No one would know.

But his chest burnt, he wanted to tell her, tell someone what he was instructed to perform. He couldn't form the words though, because her eyes were too powerful, to knowing.

She would _end_ him if she knew.

"Take them Draco. Then go to bed or something. You look dead tired," said Jessi offhandedly. She was attempting to look everywhere but at him. Her heart pounded in her chest and her cheeks were flushed.

'_Tell him,'_ whispered Mischief.

'_Tell him what?' _

'_That he isn't alone,'_ said Mischief. Before Jessi could say otherwise Draco reached out and took the paper, his fingers brushing hers. She stared at them as they separated.

"Why are you so cold?" she asked gently, as if someone was listening in. Her eyes found his, they smoldered coldly.

"Because," he croaked, "I'm standing in the most haunted house in all of Britain, in the dead of winter."

Jessi couldn't help the peels of laughter that erupted from her. His words had been so blunt, so utterly trite and laced with disgust of the deepest level. She wrapped her arms around her middle and leaned over. The warmth of her laughter reaching from the top of her ears to the tips of her toes and flowing outward towards everything around it.

"_Funny_?" he said as he tried to not let her laughter affect him, "I don't think you'd be laughing if you were this cold." He crossed his arms over his chest and walked up to the gasping girl. Her red hair still frazzled and flying everywhere. Before he knew it his fingers were tangled in those red locks, pushing them from her face. The warmth of her body sinking into his. Jessi's mirth died as she stared up at him.

"You had some…paper or something…" he muttered as he removed his hand and looked away. Ashamed and embarrassed when she smiled at him.

"So the Slytherin Prince really isn't as bad as what he makes himself to be," said Jessi with a smirk.

Draco's face fell into a cocky look. The crazed and hungry look had been hidden again. "_Please_ Davis," he said as his hand fell to his side, he turned away from her and started towards the door.

"I think there's a good person in you," she said seriously to his back.

"Why?" snapped Draco as he stopped, he didn't turn around though, as if her words didn't mean that much.

"I… I don't know," she said softly as she dusted off her arms. "It's just a feeling, woman's intuition."

"Well you're wrong!" he spat as he suddenly turned on her. Stalking back over to her quickly as he said it, he forced her up against the desk with his taunt and angry body and threats. "I'm not some _Saint_ like _Potter_. I don't _save_ people Davis, I _end_ them. I _destroy_. I _kill_."

Jessi stared up at him, her eyes as livid as his. The sudden change and his urge to control washing over her. And his words. Almost a death sentence to the ears of a true Rands. But Jessi's thoughts swarmed to prove him wrong, anything.

'_I don't want to kill you!'_

"You saved me though," she said softly but acidic, she refused to show him her fear. His lip twitched at her words, a lock of his blonde hair falling from its place to his eyes.

"I only saved you because I had a _use_ for you!" he said with dangerous edge in his voice. He wasn't the shaking Draco before; he was laced from head to toe, in fury and pent up tension.

She shock on her face was evident even though she tried to hide it. Draco smirked and he leaned in as if to deliver the final blow, to hammer the final nail in his coffin that would make him a target, prey, dead. He pinned her down, and Jessi waited like a rabbit, too shocked to run, for him to attack.

"I'm also a bloody liar."

And then he took her, swiftly and rough, there was no compassion or care. There were only his lips demanding hers. There was no breath, not thoughts, just pure instinct and urge. Only their hearts made noise, the constant beating of life.

Jessi gripped the wood of the desk for dear life as she was sucked into the kiss. Drawn in like a moth to the flame who'd gotten too close and now her lovely spotted wings were burning up before her eyes. Not even the cold of the desk she'd been forced to lay on could stop it.

But the burning felt good. She relished it, the adrenaline and the feeling. She'd never been kissed before and she couldn't even judge if he was even any good at it, but it didn't matter, because the burning was good enough.

Draco forced her back even more, one of his hands tangling in the dark red hair, entwining his fingers so deep that he could feel the heat that came from her body. Absorbing it through his skin and feeling it wash through him like fire. Running up his arms, over his shoulders, trickling down his back and scalding his legs in its flames. And it all originated with her mouth. The one that'd cursed him, tortured him, soothed him, and probably hated him.

He broke away slowly, holding her there, staring into her eyes and watching the moonlight dance across her irises. Their lips slightly parted, and wet.

Jessi's mind was eerily silent; it was only she and Draco who was just as confused as her. Slowly he backed off her, allowing her to bring her feet back down to the ground.

Draco stared at her silently. His face a pale, beautiful mask. He watched, waited for her judgment, swallowing thickly. Her taste filling his mouth, making it water as the taste throbbed through his veins, traveling and alerting all parts of his body to her presence.

"Don't…" said Jessi hollowly, "Don't ever do that again. I'm not someone you can manipulate with…"

Draco's eyes narrowed. He crossed his arms over his chest and blew out air from between his teeth in a silent act of anger.

"Then my point has been proven," he snarled malevolently. Jessi turned on him, her eyes wide.

'_It was all…'_

"You know Malfoy," she spat, "You're jokes suck."

Gathering up her things she stormed out of the shack. Draco was hot on her heels. Both puffing and huffing angrily and embarrassed, because they both enjoyed it.

"Jokes? You think this is a joke? My _life_ is on the line!" he shouted at her. The wind swirled around them coldly and the sun was setting, turning the sky a muted pink.

"Then Draco, _don't fuck around with me_," she choked out. The wind was whipping at her face and her eyes watered. She prayed he wouldn't think she was crying, she wasn't.

'_What am I doing?'_

00—00—00

Jessi slapped Zabini over the head with a leaflet of paper as he attempted to ignore her as he read his paper.

"Don't give me that, I'm not in the mood," she growled as she sat down beside him on one of the squishiest and softest sofas in the room. Letting the paper fall neatly folded Zabini looked over at her with a glitter in his eyes.

"Sorry Jessi didn't see you there," he drawled easily, he noticed how tense her body was, and the thin line she had drawn her lips into.

"You had a fight with Draco I assume," said Zabini quite flatly. Jessi nodded and clenched her hands in her lap.

"He…finally crossed a line," said Jessi as she glanced out of one of the paned windows. The snow falling heavily against the glass.

"Ah, Draco," mused Blaise as he turned his full attention to the girl before him, a suave grin on his face, "And now you run to moi?"

Jessi gave him a Malfoy-worthy glare and he put his arms up in defense, "Joking, joking."

"I told you your jokes were bad," snapped Jessi as a few younger girls slunk off to the dormitories. Obviously thinking that Zabini would in no way noticed them if Jessi was there spouting off.

"Anyway…" mulled Blaise as he quickly changed the subject, "I assume you're going to take me up on my offer."

"Yes."

Blaise smirked and even Jessi couldn't help but think he was sexy, exotic, some far off land she might never visit but would dream of.

"Excellent, and don't worry about a dress, my mother will be donating," he said smoothly, "We cannot look like you walked out of the slums now can we?"

Jessi looked like he'd just asked for her hand in marriage, "What? Huh? No way! You are not paying for a dress!"

"Oh I'm not," he said as he turned a few pages in the _Prophet_, "My mother ex-husband is. You see he had an accident with a Manticore a few months ago, left us a bundle."

Jessi put her head in her hands and groaned. Zabini glanced over his paper at her, "Come now love, he wasn't that good a person, don't cry over him."

"You thick twit!" shouted Jessi as she began hitting him again over the head with her paper, leaning over as he tried to escape.

"Am I interrupting something?" said a cold voice, they both turned to see the stony grey eyes of Draco Malfoy peering down on them. His tie was disheveled, as was his hair, one might have almost thought he'd just gotten laid, but the cold and defeated look in his eyes proved that wrong.

Before Jessi could say anything Zabini had wrapped a dark, muscled arm around her waist and pulled her towards him.

"Yes you are Draco," he said smoothly, "Care leaving us alone."

Draco narrowed his eyes and bent almost robotically, sliding a folded piece of parchment on the table towards Jessi. His eyes never leaving her, straightening he turned away, said nothing and departed.

Jessi punched Blaise and leapt away. Nursing his injured arm Zabini looked up at her puzzled.

"What are you going to do with that?" he asked as she picked up the parchment. There were two pieces of it. She glanced at Zabini as she stashed them in her back pocket.

"I'm keeping them. I guess I can't refuse your dress or whatever," she said before he could interject, "Goodnight."

00—00—00

_ I am a liar, Jessi. Everything I do, I am a coward. I'm not asking for your forgiveness. I'm not petty, I'm not weak, I'm asking for your help. Because I don't know who else I can…I can trust._

_ Draco_

Jessi pressed the paper to her chest as she stared up at the ceiling; she'd drawn the curtains around her bed, hiding her from the prying eyes of her neighbors. Shielding her from the outside world.

'_What am I doing?'_

'_You're falling in love,"_ said Mischief.

And once again Jessi feared she might be right. The other piece of paper, the runes, had been copied with care.


	8. Chapter 8 Trust Me

Well we've made it to chapter eight! I'm pleased to say that I am really enjoying this story and all the twists and turns that it's letting me invoke inside of it. I really struggled with this chapter though; my friends will tell you how I complained about it. I really don't like writing mundane things such as the Slughorn party. It didn't have enough emotionally gripping or adventurer picturesque scenes for me. I like action scenes like the nerd I am. So many of you will wonder why I'm going to add a Yule Ball into this series. Here's a hint: One Republic: All the Right Moves.

And to address my reviewers. Thank you so much for reviewing! I was asked why there wasn't more coverage from other characters (harry, ron, etc) and the answer for that is this: This story is about Jessi and Draco and they alone. I don't like interfering with other characters because then I feel that my character then gets too much attention and that tends to be unnatural. Not saying the Golden Trio will not be included sometime in this story, but I will not be having them give say in this because it's simply not a story about them.

Ta ta for now my lovelies~

I do not own Harry Potter or anything of that sort. Just Jessi and the Fan-ta-bu-lous Rands. For they are my brainchildren.

00—00—00

_But you think that I can't see  
What kind of man that you are  
If you are man at all  
_

Jessi stared at the floating necklace with a muted fascination. The soft blue stones set in the blacken silver entranced her, the magic inside of it humming off of it like a rattlesnake sounding off, yet it only pulled her closer. No one else in the class seemed to be as drawn to it as her. She inched closer, the magic pulling at her even more, a vice like grip tugging her to touch it. There was something there, something inlaid…something…

"Miss Davis if you would please not touch it," said Snape with a glowing look, "You of all people should know what kind of damage it could do."

Jessi sank back into her seat as a few people chuckled behind her; she gripped her fingers tight together within her robes. Glancing up at him she noticed his eyes lingered a few moments more than what should have been, they showed nothing in the deep twin pools of ink, but it still made her shiver.

The necklace sank back onto its wrappings and the class was concluded. Jessi shuffled about, trying to make it seem as if she was leaving when she wasn't. In a billowing of black fabric Snape turned on her when she was the only person left in the room. His dark eyes boring into hers.

"Questions Miss Davis?" he said smoothly.

Jessi's eyes flitted back to the necklace, slow enough for Snape to see and instantly assume.

"It's a dark spell, probably put on years ago," he said as he folded his arms over his chest and peered down his crooked nose at her, "Have something to say?"

"I just…a generation or two back…there was a spell master in my family, and this looked like their work," said Jessi, she hadn't meant to even bring that up, but the words came gushing out before she could dam them up. Snape raised an eyebrow delicately.

"And their name?"

"Xavier…" _'Xavier Rands.'_ "I'm not sure Professor, we have a lot of name changes in my family," she lied softly. Snape regarded her with hidden interest and turned from her to the necklace.

"And you think that this is one of their…weapons?" he asked.

"Well, more like it was a planted threat, that…never went off," she said, trying to not say whatever she was truly thinking.

"What are you really here for Miss Davis," asked Snape curtly as he closed the lid on the necklace. Jessi took a few steps away from him.

"I want to know…if there is a place at Hogwarts where things…old things are kept," she said as she stared at him. His face was just as mask-like as before, but now he seemed…alert.

"This entire castle is full of old things Miss Davis, you must be more specific," he said as he drummed his fingers against his bicep.

"Ones with runes on them," said Jessi finally.

Snape didn't say anything for a period of time. He seemed to be looking over all of his memories. His upper lip twitched and he found himself tapping his foot impatiently.

"There are rumors of a Room, that gives to the patron whatever they desire," he said slowly, watching her expression carefully, "It is called the Room of Requirement."

"Where is it?" asked Jessi, in captured by the prospect of finally knowing where Malfoy was getting his runes.

Snape looked bored, "How should I know Miss Davis? Get moving, you'll be late."

00—00—00

Jessi mounted the stairs to the boys' dormitories with a sinking feeling in her gut. It was just two days till Slughorn's party and Blaise had forbidden her from seeing what he and his mother had picked out for her to wear. The queasy feeling was not only from the uncertain fate of her evening dress, but the stress that she had been having in the avoiding of Malfoy.

Jessi wasn't sure if it was actually possible, but it seemed to be. Draco Malfoy was more of an ass now, than ever. He snapped and cursed at everyone he saw, sending her murderous looks daily and bumping into her so hard it was as if she'd killed his mother. She couldn't fully understand why. She still had the runes, un-coded and waiting, but he acted as if nothing had ever happened.

'_That's the way it ought to be,'_ she thought as she knocked softly on the door_, 'whatever happened then…it meant utterly nothing.'_

Zabini opened the door with a lazy grin, his rumpled dress shirt and tie undone.

"I've been waiting for you," he drawled slowly.

"Get off Zabini," said Jessi flatly as she shouldered past him into the smallish room. Many of the beds had the curtains drawn around them and a few even issued a few girlish giggles. Zabini ignored the giggles and her harsh comment and walked over to his own bed, pulling out a large suitcase from underneath his bed he propped it on his bed, and with a click of silver locks the case came open.

"I'm pretty sure it will fit," he said as he pulled out a garment covered in plastic, he held it by the hanger and pulled off the slip.

"Zabini…" started Jessi, "I do _not_ want to look like a _whore_."

Zabini gave a boastful tut, "Come on, you do not! You'll look great in this!"

"It only has one strap," she commented dryly as she crossed her arms over her chest and leaned back on her heels.

Zabini smiled at her ruefully, "Thank you for being so observant. Yes, yes it only has one strap, but with boobs like yours that is all you need!"

Jessi narrowed her eyes, "Thank you for letting me know you've been looking." Zabini smirked and put the dress back and pulled out a small box and handed it to her.

"Might as well keep a hold of these, might want to start practicing in them," he suggested as Jessi opened the package carefully. The brown paper and string falling away to a crème white box with golden lettering. Something in French was inscribed across it and Jessi shot Zabini a puzzled look as she opened it up.

"Oh…"

"Like them? The eyes are real emeralds," he said nonchalantly as he leaned back in his bed. Unbuttoning his shirt a few more buttons and easing his tie off as Jessi pulled one of the shoes out of the box. Her eyes wide and taking in all aspects of the black heels with the snake trailing up them.

"Their beautiful, cliché but beautiful," she said softly as she glazed into the green eyes of the snake, seeing herself refracted a billion times.

"You can always say thank you," said Blaise as he ran a hand slowly down his chest and winked at her. Jessi put the shoe back in with its partner and looked over at him with misty eyes.

"You'd like that wouldn't you?" she purred as she put the box down on the bed and strode over to his side. Her fingertips trailing on the bedspread and up his forearm. She leaned down so that her fiery hair framed his face. Blaise breathed in deeply and his eyes took her in.

"But you'll never get it," she said as she straightened up and snatched the shoes off the bed, hesitating and looking back at the bed where Blaise laid. His dark skin glowing, not in the way Draco's did. She could tell that warm blood and not metal snakes ran beneath his skin, and his eyes did not pierce her in such a way she had to look the other direction. There was a longing in her, but not a love.

"I can give you what he can't," he said softly, "Remember that Jessi."

"I will."

00—00—00

Draco came into the room looking haggard and didn't pay attention at all to the sprawled teen who watched his every move. Quickly he pulled off his vest and shirt, depositing them on the floor and went to the sink to rinse his face.

"Where's the girl?" asked Draco in a feeble attempt at casual chatter. His eyes were dark and lines had formed between his eyes from the immense concentration he'd been under.

"Girl?" asked Zabini.

"I assume that you look like you do because you just got laid," muttered Draco as he pulled on night clothes.

"Ha, no, just one big tease," whispered Blaise as he looked off dreamily.

"Who teases you?" asked Draco with a peaked brow. Zabini turned to look at him.

"Who do you think?" said Zabini as he sat up and ran a hand over his face and sighed deeply.

"I don't know Zabini!" snarled Draco as he threw himself back into the blankets of his bed.

"Jessi."

Draco inhaled sharply, his hands turning to fists and his knuckles turning white under the taunt strength of his muscles. His chest moved, breathing, but it didn't seem like he was getting oxygen. Flashes of memories, sensations, rumbled down his body like thunder over a grassy plain.

"What was she doing here?"

"I was just showing her what she will be wearing to Slughorn's party," said Blaise, he could feel the anxiety and anger flowing off of Draco in waves. And he knew much better than to provoke him at such a time.

Draco said nothing and with a flick of his wand closed the curtains around his bed. Rolling onto his side he bit his lip, willing it all to go away.

'_It doesn't matter because I am going to die.'_

00—00—00

Jessi stared down at herself anxiously, Bev was curling her hair meticulously with some spell she hadn't really bothered to remember, and Coralline was dashing about trying to find the right earrings for her.

"I'm thinking about these green ones, but…oh! No you must wear these ones!" she cried as she pulled small dangling gems from her box of jewelry. Jessi looked less than enthused as they swarmed all over her.

In the end Jessi left with the green earrings, justified by the fact they matched the green eyes on the little silver snakes that were wrapped around her shoes.

With Bev and Coralline edging her out the door she opened the dormitory door and peered down. There, amidst a few other Slytherin boys who had been invited and their dates, stood Zabini in tailored dress robes looking levels above the people who surrounded them. His calm composure made those around him seem gaudy and phony.

'That's how you spot a vampire,' said the Rands softly.

'_I'm not hunting vampires,'_ she thought back.

'Yet.'

Descending the stairs slowly Jessi watched him watch her. Her dress felt too tight, her legs felt constricted and she feared that she might break her ankle, but she kept moving.

Zabini took her arm and guided her to the door swiftly. Many people in the room watched them go in relative silence, until the door slammed behind them.

"You look smashing tonight," said Zabini with a sideways glance. Jessi tried not to look at him as they walked.

"You don't look bad yourself," she said curtly.

"You'll survive Jessi," said Zabini, "So you don't have to clutch onto me that hard."

"Please Zabini," said Jessi brushing him off, "It's these damn shoes."

"I thought they looked appropriate for the occasion," he said smartly.

"Oh and I suppose you thought the dress looked good to? Don't act like you're not staring down it," she snapped at him.

"Fine then Jessi, I won't," said Blaise with a smirk that made Jessi attempt to kick him, looking scandalized.

They continued on in a relatively strained silence towards the party.

00—00—00

Draco tightened his tie and watched from the shadows as people walked by. Chatting aimlessly as they entered Slughorn's party, the lanterns giving them a warm glow, while he sat in the shadows looking sickly.

He was about to emerge, using the activity to shield his movements, when Zabini and Jessi rounded the corner. He pressed himself back into the shadows before her sharp brown eyes found him. His heart picked up and he willed himself to be invisible.

They entered together, Jessi refused to hold onto Zabini's arm even though he gestured for her to. She shot him a look before entering anyway and the door closed behind them.

Easing out from the shadows Draco tried not to give them another thought and dashed up the stairs to the third corridor.

The old tapestry hung over the rock wall and once he stopped moving everything was silent. Outside a faint winter wind blew against the castle, creaking slightly and drafts creeping in from different angles between the stones.

Slowly he closed his eyes, his darker blonde lashes coming down to meet. He forced himself to relax for once, to let everything go.

'_I need the place where my fate lies.'_

A large door swung open where the old tapestry and wall had once been. He entered quickly and shut the door behind him that swiftly dissolved into the wall and tapestry again. Inside the smell of burnt potion, old candles, and dust met his nose. He walked through the aisles of things, his fingertips brushing them. There was a strange comfort in being surrounded with…

'…_junk?'_ he thought, _'Broken pieces of things that were suppose to work but didn't?'_

He gripped an old potion beaker that had been stained with something green; he stared through the glass to the other side of the room. Its contents distorted and tinted with the blemish. His hands began to shake and he threw the glass vile to the floor where it shattered into tiny shards of green starlight.

"I will not be put out," he whispered, deadly soft to the wailing of an old record player, "I will not be a fool."

Turning on his heel he looked up at the cabinet, pulling the large cloth he'd thrown over it he dodged out of the way of the flyaway dust.

Steel grey eyes pierced the gloom of the room as he walked up to the cabinet. One hand outstretched before him, alighting on the silver handle with a soft tenderness. It turned beneath his touch and the twin doors opened to him.

Leaning into the open space he placed the apple he'd been carrying. The soft thud of it touching the wood beneath echoing in the room. He pulled away and took the doors in both hands, glancing at the apple once before shutting the doors.

"_Open me, step inside, fall to depths where you may reside,"_ he whispered softly as the doors clicked shut. He closed his eyes and pushed with all his might, with all the magic in his pure blood.

_Pop_

He opened his eyes with a bright flash of blue grey iris. His hands pulling at the handles, his heart thudding in his chest, beating in his temples. His lungs urging against the dust in the air and the stench of things forgotten for the oxygen that he sought.

The undisturbed dust of the old wood greeted him blandly. His eyes searched blindly about the cabinet floor. _But there was no apple to be seen._

He almost slammed the door closed in his excitement, but there was no smile on his face. Just the urgency that he needed to do something or else, his punishment would destroy him.

'_He will kill me.'_

Pushing aside such terrifying thoughts he centered himself again, closing his eyes. He did not have the spell to return what he'd given the cabinet but he did have the spell to give it something.

'_It won't know that I'm giving it nothing.'_

"_Open me, step inside, fall to depths where you may reside,"_ he chanted softly. He opened his eyes for a second and nothing happened. Squeezing them shut again he repeated it over again.

_Pop_

Slowly he opened his eyes, afraid that he might have just fooled himself into thinking that perhaps…

Opening the cabinet softly and slowly, in the pale light an apple sat solemnly.

A bite had been taken out of it, but nothing more.

00—00—00

After the dazzling flash of a camera Jessi had just about ha enough of high life with the slug club. She wasn't too impressed by the people there and the only vampire she avoided like the plague. Her shoulders were cold and her legs felt too exposed. It appeared as though many of the Gryffindor girls there were whispering about her outfit.

'_Damn you Zabini,'_ she thought. He'd disappeared as soon as Slughorn tired to start up a small chat with him. Said man was now waddling over to her and she looked around but found no way to escape.

"Ah! Jessi my girl!" roared Slughorn as he came up to her, "Enjoying the party are you?"

"Oh, of course sir," lied Jessi as she put on quite a smile. The Professor clapped her on her bare shoulder.

"That's my girl, that's my girl," he said happily, "How's your father by the way? Haven't seen old Brass in ages."

Jessi smile despite her overwhelming sense of urgency. "Oh he's doing fine sir. A work-a-holic as always."

"Yes, yes. Tricky business what he does," said Slughorn with an exaggerated seriousness, "I heard that he _personally_ investigated the Ministry."

"Oh, well yes, he is very active in searching for loose ends," said Jessi somberly but with a smile. Slughorn nodded vigorously and waved to someone far off before turning back to her.

"You know there is quite a rumor about your father," said Slughorn with a twinkle in his eyes, "All speculation of course, no real evidence."

Jessi peered up at him, swallowing her fear to give him a mask of puzzlement.

"Some say he's a _Rands_," said Slughorn as he looked very keenly down at her.

Jessi gave a polite giggle, "Ah what a rumor indeed sir. You must hear all the gossip, but let me assure you, we have no ties to any underground societies. But it is a good story."

"Of course, of course! Purely fictitious," said Slughorn with a jolly laugh. There wasn't a tiny look of suspicious on his face and Jessi slowly unclenched her muscles and laughed with him, albeit strained.

"Now who was your date tonight Miss Davis?" he asked with a sly grin. Glad the subject had changed she took the full opportunity to keep it going.

"Oh well, Zabini brought me with him…"

"Zabini! Quite a chap, but not too unlike his mother. You see the poor woman has lost so many of her husbands…"

"Oh yes sir I know, tragic," added Jessi to the conversation. Slughorn was about to add the gossip that someone believed that a certain trick hex had been put upon her when a ruckus at the door caught their and everyone's attention.

Filch came in, wheezing as per usual, and tugging a very disgruntled Draco Malfoy by the collar of his expensive suit.

"Get your hands off me you filthy squib!" growled Draco as he thrashed against the grip of the man. He stopped whenever Slughorn looked rather amazed at his appearance and language. The crowd had gone silent and Jessi was just as dumbstruck as everyone else, her heart flying into her throat and continuing to throb there.

"I found him wandering around the upper corridor, said he was invited to the party," mumbled Filch as he peered down at Draco who cursed at him. Jessi saw him look over the crowd quickly, settling on her, then the ominous dark cloaked Snape drawing ever closer. He looked suddenly strangled, for some reason he did not want to be near the old potions master if he could help it.

Jessi's mind leapt forward in plotting out a plan. She wasn't entirely sure why, it was clear Draco hadn't ever done anything for her.

'_He did save you technically,'_ interjected Mischief.

'_Oh shut up and stop making me feel cynical,'_ snarled Jessi.

Jessi leaned down, no one noticed, and yanked off one of her adorable shoes. Giving the little snake one last sad look, upset that she soon would probably ruin him. Drawing a big breath Jessi stepped forward.

And hurled her shoe at Draco Malfoy's head.

"How could you!" snapped Jessi as she entered into the ring of people that had formed, "Sneaking out!"

The shoe connected solidly with his forehead and bounced off. He looked outraged and held his head looking injured, until he noticed that Snape had stopped progressing towards him. He looked back at Jessi and despite the small bead of blood that was running down his forehead he felt…relieved.

"You know how I can't stand the people at these things," he argued back, he jerked out of Filch's grasp and straightened his jacket.

"I don't care!" said Jessi as the ring of people began to whisper to each other in a fevered murmur, "You said you'd show up and what happens? You get found sneaking away!"

Slughorn gave Filch a surrendered look, "It appears as though he _was_ invited." Filch who of course was unhappy about that, stormed off in a fast hobble. Draco and Jessi watched him go as Slughorn called the rest of the crowd to relax and enjoy themselves.

"Did you really have to throw a shoe at me?" muttered Draco as he wiped the blood from his face with a disgusted look.

"Did you really have to go sneaking about the castle and get caught!" snapped Jessi as she pulled a tissue from her small purse and pushed him into a chair. Pressing the cloth to the wound to staunch the bleeding.

"It works," he whispered even lower than before, looking about quickly to make sure no one was listening in.

"What?" asked Jessi as she leaned closer in. He looked up at her, realizing how beautiful she looked in her dress and angelically curled hair. She looked more feminine than he'd ever seen her, and it suited her, other than the fact he knew that beneath the diamonds and high heels she was a wildcat waiting to attack…or perhaps a hawk.

"It works, the runes you gave me work," he said, "But I need the others."

Jessi pulled away and threw the tissue into a near by bin. She sighed and put a hand on her hip, as she shook her head Draco glanced up a down her legs. Unable to help himself.

"And why should I?" she asked, "You've been nothing but utterly obnoxious to me and everyone else!"

"Could I make it up to you with a remark about your outfit tonight?" he said smartly. Jessi flushed and pointed a finger into his face menacingly.

"_One remark _out of _you_ and I'll have you thrown out of here before you get it all out of that _foul mouth_ of yours," she threatened, "And it certainly will _not_ help you get back in my good graces."

"I don't care about your _graces_ Davis; I just want those runes translated. Don't ask. That was our deal before," he said as he rose to her height.

"Well I'm tired of not knowing Draco," whispered Jessi, "I can't do it anymore without knowing." _'Knowing _something_.'_

Draco looked torn; he put a hand to his mouth and then moved it up his face to pull the stray hairs back into place. His eyes darted about the room, refusing to stay anywhere and at the same time not look at her.

"I _can't_ tell you Davis," he said finally.

"Why not," she asked, a hint of impatience in her voice, "How can you expect me to _do_ something when I don't even know what it's for. Sure I did it at first, I thought I was doing you a favor or something but now you're just using me and I _refuse_ to be _used_. Why can't you just trust me!?"

Jessi put a hand over her mouth and backed away, ashamed at her outburst. A few people were watching them. Draco kept at her and moved with her as she moved away. His grey eyes piercing into hers.

"Why can't I tell you? Because _Jessi_, I can't trust anybody," he hissed.

"Then why did you trust me to get you out of that mess with Filch, and why did you trust me to come to the shack, and _why_ did you trust me enough to ask me _in the first place_?" she asked softly but her words were acidic, burning through him like her eyes were.

"Because…" he couldn't find the words. They were lost in his greedy need for the other runes, he couldn't think properly. He just needed them, he was throwing away everything for this to work and now she was standing in his way instead of letting him use her like before.

"Because you were the only bloody one," he hissed.

"Well then if I'm '_the only bloody one'_ don't you think you should have a little more respect for me and at least tell me what is going on?" snarled Jessi as she poked him in the chest to prove her point.

Draco grabbed her hand and held it.

"Fine, Christmas break I'll show you. On one condition," he said as he leaned down towards her face.

"What?" hissed Jessi.

"You'll go to the Yule ball with me," he said simply.

Jessi's eyes were wide with shock, the ball meant more dresses, more shoes, more people and…dancing.

"Anything but that," she whispered.

"Then pull out of the Competition," he bargained, happy that he'd gotten the upper hand.

Jessi was at a stand still; it was either dress up in a dress or lower her wand to him. Both she didn't want to do. Stamping her foot she gritted her teeth.

"Fine, I'll go to the dance with you."

Draco kept her hand as he yanked them out of the party. Jessi would have detested but she wanted to be out of there almost as bad as he did. She savored being free finally as they stood outside of the room, she took off her shoes once more and rubbed her feet.

"That's disgusting Jessi, stop that," spat Draco who looked ready to get as far as he could from the vicinity.

Jessi was about to shout at him when she stopped and looked up at him. The lanterns giving him a warm look.

"Did you just…call me by my name?" she asked.

"It is your name isn't it?" he growled as he stared down at her, "Am I not allowed to use it?"

Jessi looked away and stood up, saying nothing she began walking away from him. A tint of red flushing her cheeks and a tickle going down the back of her neck.

"The common room is in the opposite direction," he said as he watched her go.

Jessi turned slowly, her brown eyes looking up him and over her shoulder that had her fiery hair draping over it. Her soft lips, painted a soft petal pink, opened up slowly as her eyes shined.

"I don't feel like going back yet."

Her skin of her shoulders moved slowly as she turned away from him. She pulled at the pins holding some of her hair back, dropping them into her purse she strung it on the crook of her elbow and then looked back at him. Her hair was now free and hanging over her bare shoulder.

"Aren't there some more rules we can break?" she asked with a smile.

Draco couldn't repress a smirk as it lit up most of his features. His eyes still looked haunted but for now the small happiness would do.

"I thought you were tired of remarks from my 'foul mouth,'" he said with mirth as he came up to her. Keeping a respectable distance between them.

Jessi shook her head and headed down the corridor her soft footsteps being mirrored by his heavier ones. The moonlight left pools of silvery white light over the stone floor and in them they appeared to be a soft delicate fairy being chased by a single mortal man.

They made it to a curling staircase when Jessi stopped. She placed her hands on the bars of the rail and stared off through a window at the moon. She moved around till she was looking out of it, leaning on the windowsill.

Draco came up beside her. They were silent. There was nothing to be said.

"Zabini told me that he could give me what you couldn't," said Jessi suddenly, turning towards him. Her body-language told him she trusted him at this moment, even if she wasn't sure why. Her wand was no where near her and she wasn't going to defend herself, she just was.

"And what would I be giving you to begin with?" he asked.

"I don't know," she said softly, "But I probably wouldn't accept it from either of you."

Draco gave a soft chuckle at that and eased into leaning against the wall. The laughter rumbled in his chest and warmed him.

Jessi smiled at him.

"You're probably right."

00—00—00

_-You're a hot mess, I'm loving it hell yes-_

**AN/** the thing with Jessi mentioning a lot of vampire hunting comes from the term "Blood Hunting" which the Rands use to say that their children are ready to be "Magic Hunters". A child who is destined to be a Rands is sent to places of high concentration of vampires such as America, Germany, and Japan to hunt those on target lists. Once they have completed that then they are allowed to enlist as "Aurors" to attack human prey in the magical and nonmagical world. It is believed by then if you can kill the undead that the alive won't be much more of a problem seeing as though potency gauges usually point to a well fed 300 year old vampire to win a fight over a normal wizard. It is also about this time that they will be fully branded with the Rands's tattoo, which as per usual wizard tattoos, moves and is unique to the individual, though the range and position vary with the design.

For instance Jessi's mother's although being branded on her right hand (the wand hand) originated in full from the back of her neck and was said to have "a vine-like appearance" while Zenith Rands's tattoos are most like feathers and wings that originate in the middle of his chest and travel down his arms and back in full instead of Chia Rands's tattoos that are thin and threadlike and weave all about her wrists like hair and tend to spell out ancient spells that are hard to decipher seeing as though they continuously move. It is completely unknown how Jessi's or any of the younger Rands children's tattoos will look until they are given them. Merr and Merrick (twins of the age 17) have almost identical tattoos which are a rarity but also symbolize the effect that twins and magic as strong as "Rands" magic affects a human being.


	9. Chapter 9 Firing Line

Sorry for the longer wait for an update. I've been working on this on and off and I've had a lot of other stuff I've had to get done. Hope you can forgive me. This chapter itself is a tad on the filler side but the next one will actually have some action. Thanks again for all of you who've reviewed. Means the world to me.

I do not own Harry Potter, only my own characters, aka; the Rands.

00—00—00

_Well, I will figure this one out  
On my own  
I'm screaming, "I love you so"  
_

Glaring over his students with the same loathing that he greeted every day, Serverus Snape was particularly happy to ruin at least some of their ambitions for the day.

"Many of you have heard rumors," he started in his slow and precise tone, "And I am now going to clear those up."

He had to admit, this was the most attentive he'd probably ever seen a class, they were all sitting on the edge of their seats, some were clutching their books to keep their hands from shaking.

"You _must_ have a passing grade in this class to sign up for the Duels, and you _must_ be of age fifteen this Christmas," said Snape finally.

A few groans erupted in his attentive crowd and there was a little slamming of books and kicking of chairs in protest. He quickly hushed them with a smart rap of his wand against the chalkboard.

"Enough, all those old enough, and smart enough," a scathing look in Potter's direction, "Should come up here now and sign their name. But be warned, this can not be undone. You will compete once you place your name."

A few students looked at one another with wide fearful eyes. They had not heard this and many were planning on signing up just to say they had, but in fact not duel at all.

"I will give you three minutes," snapped Snape as he unrolled a particularly long piece of parchment that hovered in mid air, a long sharp looking quill appeared as well. Dangling daintily beside the parchment, waiting to be used.

The twin sound of chairs scraping the floor echoed in the room, silencing all chatter immediately. Two students stood up at the same time, looked at each other and proceeded to walk forward.

"Sure you want to go through with this Davis?" said Draco in an acidic tone.

"Of course, any chance to beat you is a chance I won't give up," she said back quickly. Snape gave them both a look and gestured to the parchment, giving Draco quite a sneer.

"Ladies first," said Draco as he let Jessi pass in front of him. She sneered back at him and took the quill, it was warm under her touch and she could feel the magic inside of it.

'…_no turning back now…'_

Jessi tried not to focus on the disembodied voices and wrote her name in her slanted script. The ink was red like blood but glistened like oil. She turned and held the quill out for Draco.

He stopped his staring contest with Snape and took the quill from Jessi with a swish of feathers. Draco wrote his name quickly and furiously and underlined it for emphasis, then dropped the quill and stormed back to his seat much nosier than Jessi.

"The first trials are in one week," said Snape with a slight smirk, "Practice."

00—00—00

Jessi was pouring over her Transfiguration notes on her free period when someone came and sat down beside her. For the time being she was too engrossed in her work to really care, there weren't a whole lot of other places one could sit at the table and she didn't have time to care. She had an exam in two periods and she hadn't studied in weeks.

'_That's what you get for working on Draco's runes and not your homework,' _chided Mischief.

Jessi sighed noisily and while in taking breath caught a particular scent that she was all too accustomed to. It was a spicy sort of smell, mixed with a male musk and it wafted through the air thinly.

Turning her head to the side she realized Draco Malfoy sat next to her. He wasn't paying her much attention but the disgruntled Pansy a few seats up who seemed to have been holding a seat for him did. She sent Jessi a scathing look and appeared to be vowing to give Jessi an early funeral.

Jessi looked away from the girl to what Draco was doing. He had books piled all around him and he looked completely exhausted. Jessi felt pity welling up in her stomach, she felt bad for him for no known reason other than he looked overworked. Biting the inside of her lip she chided herself.

'You're getting too soft,' said the Rands.

'_I know.'_

"Why do you have so much work?" she asked Draco aloud. He glanced over at her, registering that he'd chosen the seat next to her and answered slowly.

"I have a lot to be expected of me," he said with a grunt, his grey eyes flashed at her quickly before going back to his work. The sharp flavor of his colonel mixed with his natural scent lingered around them. Clogging Jessi's brain, hypothetically.

"I know how you feel," she replied as she looked back at her notes. Draco gave a halfhearted nod.

"At least your father isn't in Azkaban," he whispered sourly.

Jessi looked over at him, shocked that he'd even mentioned his father when it was such a touchy subject and she'd already used it as ammo earlier in the year against him. Her brown eyes searched his face as he continued to work. He looked utterly stressed.

'_To the point that he'd talk about such things?_' she thought.

"If it's any condolence, I don't get to see my father much either," she said as she turned a page in her notes. Dootles greeted her on that page, not hers of course, Bev's probably, she got bored and dootled on everything.

Draco peeked up at her over his quill, "Really?"

"Yes, he's away a lot. And even when he is around…he's not someone you have warm cuddly fireside conversations with," she said with a shrug, "That was my mother, or at least that's what I can remember of her."

Jessi refused to look at him as her cheeks warmed up. She hadn't meant to start talking about her parents like that. She just felt that she couldn't keep it in against him.

"Sometimes I wonder if Potter's sob story is as bad as what everyone makes it out to be," said Draco absentmindedly. Jessi looked back at him.

"I'm sure it's tough," she said as nonchalantly as possible, "Of course he doesn't have the high expectations to live up to as the rest of us."

Draco peered at her sideways, blue eyes boring into hers and she couldn't help but find him beautiful, in a slightly sick sort of way.

"What expectations do you have to live up to?" he asked with a slight edge to his voice. He closed his Charms book and moved on to Potions.

Jessi floundered for a moment, trying to decide how best to attack such a personal question that had inevitable links to the Rands. She closed up her notes and made a show of putting them into her bag, trying to distract him from what she was about to say so he wouldn't ask more questions.

"Well, my family doesn't take well to failure, in anything," she said quickly, "My dad is an Auror after all, and he expects the same from me."

"You're going to be an Auror?" he asked as she pulled out her own Potion's homework. She met his eyes and instantly wished she hadn't, he'd moved closer, or at least it seemed that way. He was leaning in, listening intently.

"Don't you think we should work on our Potions?" said Jessi sheepishly as to try to change the subject. Draco pulled her book from her hand and held it behind his back. Looking mischievous as he did so, giving her a cocky smile that looked devilishly handsome on his pale features.

"Answer my question Jessi," he said smoothly. Jessi huffed and rolled her eyes and held out a hand.

"Give me my book Draco."

"An answer for the book."

"No."

"Fine then, no book," he said smartly. Jessi was getting irritated quickly and her flame colored hair was falling in her eyes and Draco had to resist the urge to push it away from her brazen orbs.

"Fine, yes, I assume I'm going to be an Auror," she answered finally as she attempted to reach around him for her book. He jerked it out of her reach at the last second so she lost balance and fell into his chest.

'_Just great…'_

"Why are you hanging out with a DeathEater's son then?" he whispered in her ear as she tried to pull away. As she did she met his eyes and ice ran down her spine, chilling her in place as he leaned in once more, his soft small lips forming acidic words.

"I don't take well to backstabbers Jessi," he hissed as he slammed her book down. He didn't even bother to pick up his things as he stormed out.

Jessi was two breaths away determined for him to hear her out. He was walking quickly, down stairs and into hallways where there wasn't a soul to be seen. With every step she took she cursed his touchiness and his inflamed male ego.

"Draco Malfoy stop!" she snarled at him as he rounded another corner, she stopped and cursed loudly.

"I never said I _wanted_ to be an Auror!"

00—00—00

Jessi sat down on her bed, beginning to write quite a lengthy letter addressed to her infamous Aunt Chia; she-devil of the wizarding world. There were few who had not at least heard of the sunglass-wearing, model like woman named Chia de la Lioncourt. Of course that wasn't her real last name, but no one dared, or thought to, check.

Since her mother had passed, Chia had taken quite an interest in Jessi, but not in the typical motherly fashion. Mostly because there was absolutely nothing typical about Chia, and the ever looming fact that she was getting old and believed that someone, her pick of course, would taker her place as the Cover Girl of the wizarding world. Not to mention an A class Rands assassin. Her aunt might get her nails done once a week on the dot, but she knew how to stop a full grown giant in its tracks with a simple flick of her emerald crusted knife.

But Jessi wasn't writing to her aunt about any special missions or life and death experiences. Instead, she was writing to her aunt about her second favorite thing next to hunting prey: dressing up.

If anyone could hook her up with a presentable dress it would be the witch with more tailors at her disposal than most muggle runway shows.

Halfway through her letter though, Jessi stopped writing and simply stared down at the paragraphs before her.

Was she even going to the dance? Maybe Draco was so upset with her he didn't' want to drag her to the God-awful event. Sighing Jessi bit her lip as the uncertainty built in her chest.

'one step at a time,' she told herself. 'you don't need a dress for at lest a week. Chia will have one here next day if you send your letter now. Might as well get a shower and go to bed. Attack this all in the morning…'

Finding her self-talk very calming, Jessi stowed the letter away and gathered up things to head to the large, shared, bathroom. Ignoring the few others around her she made her way to the large doors, voices though, rose up from inside and kept her from pushing the doors open.

"But that's just it! I don't' know what's going on!" said Pansy exasperated. Jessi pressed herself to the all outside the room, grateful all that were in the room were either asleep or not caring enough to even notice her existence. Jessi had her sweatpants to her chest as she listened deeper.

"But you have to have talked to him," said Mildred Bulstrod, Pansy's best friend.

"I try but he always shoots me down. He's so mad these days, even Zabini says he's getting worse," answered Pansy, "He won't even talk to Snape anymore."

"But hasn't he said anything? To anyone?"

"Just to Jessi," snarled Pansy, "Their up to something, just the two of them. I can't stand her! I don't get why they talk, they always get mad at each other yet they talk the next day like nothing happened!"

Jessi swallowed thickly and kept listening. The information was jumbling around inside of hear like a heavy current.

"Well she still doesn't know what we do," said Mildred haughtily, Pansy chuckled but didn't sound happy in the least.

"No. He only showed me and Zabini, no one else has any sort of idea that he has _it_. Of course Crabbe and Goyle got _theirs_ at the same time though."

Ice flooded Jessi's veins, rooting her in place, every nerve of her body intent on listening to every word the girls uttered. Her heart thundered as adrenaline fed her heart.

"You don't think she's helping him with something? Something to do with you-know-who?" asked Mildred, fear inching in on her voice.

"No," said Pansy curtly, "Their doing something but the only times I see them together is at public places. Crabbe and Goyle said she's not with him most of the time."

"How would they know?"

"They're his scouts, on the third floor, those girls that are always standing there. They're his guards in disguises."

Breath froze in Jessi's lungs. She almost dropped her clothes in shock. Eyes wide and searching about her. Praying she'd heard wrong.

Draco Malfoy was not just the son of a DeathEater.

_He was one._

'_No, no way. I would have seen his dark mark,'_ she thought, _'or…sensed it…'_

Would she have? Only once had she ever witnessed him without some decent article of clothing on his arms. That had been during her stay in the hospital wing. Drug addled…

"Astoria said he's there all the time too," said Pansy, "Even without them."

"How did he get his hands on Polyjuice Potion?" asked Mildred in disbelief.

"First day of potions I suppose," replied Pansy, "I wasn't paying attention."

Neither had Jessi, she hadn't thought anything particular about him. Never noticed…he'd been plotting beneath her nose the entire time. She suddenly felt very sick and wanted to vomit.

'_Using me…'_ she thought, _'He had said…'_

"'_I only kept you alive because I had a use for you.'"_

Jessi wanted to scream, but instead she slowly walked back over to her bed. Watching carefully from beneath her lashes as Pansy and Mildred left the bathroom.

'_You though you could use me…'_

She got her shower, the warm water unable to unclench her now wired muscles.

'_You thought you could walk all over me…_'

She dried quickly, but instead of putting on pajamas she pulled on a pair of black pants and a black long sleeved shirt with a large opening at the head, ignoring the face her pink and green bra straps showed.

'_Scare me with words that had no meaning… You didn't care if I was going to be an Auror, you'd get rid of me when the time came or I got too nosey.'_

Jessi found Zabini in the Common room, she asked him quickly, curtly where Draco was. He had no idea and watched her curiously with his deep dark eyes.

"Ok thanks." She made her way to the door before he could ask any questions. Before anyone could ask anything.

'_Well Mr. Malfoy…I will know the truth now. Weather you or I like it.'_

00—00—00

_Into the night_

_Desperate and broken_

She caught him exiting through a door that simply vanished. There was no creeping up on anyone, no surprise attack or sudden rush of malice. There was just Jessi standing in his shadow, watching the moon illuminate his ashen hair and sallow features.

Off in the distance, the quiet, one of the birds cried out.

"What now?"

_The sound of a fight_

_Father has spoken_


	10. Chap 10 King of Hearts Queen of Spades

Chapter 10; King of Hearts, Queen of Spades

Not too sure yet if I like this chapter, it didn't turn out how I wanted it but I'm too fed up with it at this point to put more effort into it. Next chapter will hopefully make up for my lack of care in this one.

Big thanks to my #1 fan who finally got me to post.

I only own my own characters, J. K. Rowling owns her peeps.

00—00—00

_On my own  
My thoughts you can't decode_

"Nothing."

"Whose side are you on?"

"My own."

"And which one might that be?"

Draco hesitated, his face, despite the struggle in his voice and the shaking in his hands, was much like a mask of no particular emotion.

"Like I said my own."

Jessi's hands were clenched at her sides and her eyes stared unblinking at the boy radiating in the moonlight.

"Whose side are you on Jessi?"

She smiled, despite herself.

"Mine."

Draco smirked too.

"Will I ever know what's really beneath it all?"

"No."

They stared at each other for some time, each trying to read what the other was thinking. Every once in a while they would glance at where the door had disappeared. Draco was sure that she had no idea how to activate the room, and finding the particular version he used would be near to impossible.

"What is your reason?" she asked softly, "why are you doing all of this?"

"Do you have those who are precious to you?" asked Draco as he watched the red-haired girl carefully. "Are there those who you would do anything to protect?"

Jessi's brown eyes met his with a mute fascination. A shock really, that Draco Malfoy of all people would be doing something important for somebody else. But then, did she really even know him? Did he know her?

"Of course…" she whispered.

"I'm doing it for them, and me," he answered, his eyes glittering despite the dark ringed sockets they were placed in. The weary and worry creasing his face and slouching his shoulders. All of his fears were circulating around him like ghosts, whispering for him to do better, strive harder, the consequences for failure were devastating. And real.

Jessi could meet his eyes no longer, she looked away, half ashamed that she was using him and half afraid he would look right through her into her deepest desires and fears.

"So noble," he whispered, his voice cracked and then it seemed as though he was screaming though his voice was almost silent, "Draco Malfoy, the Slitherin Prince, doing the only things he knows how to because he doesn't want to see his mummy and daddy die because they stood up for what they believed. Poor stupid Draco."

Jessi reached out, closing the distance between them with a few steps. Standing so close she could see the tears shining in his eyes and feel the hopelessness encompassing him.

"Stop it," she whispered, staring down at her shoes,"stop saying stuff like that."

He looked down on the crown of her head, how beautiful her red hair was, like a fiery halo about her head. Framing her pale face in gossamer curls and waves. Her frame looked so light and fragile, but he knew better, she was a demon in a girl's skin.

"Why?" he croaked, "It's the truth; you yourself said you'd know it in the end. The truth."

"Stop it." She commanded as she clenched her fists, but refused to look at him. This made him even more upset than before snarling he grabbed her chin, "what? Can't you look at me?!"

His anger died in his throat when he saw her face, saw the eyes covered in tears, saw the trails of moisture that ran down her soft cheeks.

"Shut up and stop making me feel horrible about hating you."

00—00—00

The room blared loud and throbbing music. It was dark save for the iridescent lights and the strobes the let streamed light dance all around the walls. The people appeared to be moving in jerky, un-fluid movements, even though their moves were carefully coordinated and defined.

Lounging in a corner in a leather chair, long legs crossed and an expensive drink in her hand Chia watched the scene from behind her dark sunglasses. Across from her another young woman sat, no older than twenty and looking rather apprehensive.

"Merrick tells me Jessi hasn't been very active lately," said Chia softly to the girl. The girl turned, her cropped blonde hair catching a blue light, her eyes were the same sapphire, burning bright beneath her much darker lashes.

"He's right, she went back to that God-awful school," said the younger girl, crossing and uncrossing her legs under the small round table. There was a murky drink set before her but it didn't appear touched. "I don't understand how she can stand being around those…_sloths_."

Chia sent the girl a startling smile of bright white teeth, her own white blonde hair glowing like embers. Her eyes hidden but her carefully styled eyebrows peaked in interest.

"Still upset about the rivalry? Or is it now just a demotion?" asked Chia, her voice lashed out and was sharp. The girl gave the older woman an accosted look and clenched her hands inside her fingerless leather gloves.

"I don't care," growled out Merr, "None of it matters much anymore. Voldemort, Dumbledore. Their all old news. Old magic that deserves to be buried away. I can't even withstand the thought of even picking up a wand anymore."

Chia chuckled and placed her drink down beside Merr's untouched one. Her dark nails, long like sickles, ran over the polished wood of the table with an eerie silence. Pulling back Chia removed the long heavy fur-lined coat she had been wearing, her bare shoulders and almost equally bare chest was a soft cream and smooth as glass. She took of her sunglasses for the first time, her champagne eyes glistening inside dark makeup. Her warm dark lips smiled. To the untrained eye, they would never see the shape of the blade hidden in the lower back of her loose blouse.

"That's why you can't be my heir Merr," said Chia with her deadly gorgeous smile, "You have to know how to manipulate those old bastards, and to do that you have to know more magic than just knifing them. Jessi understands that, that's why I chose her over you."

Chia disappeared into the thronging crowds; there wasn't even a trace of her left. Merr clenched her fist and knocked over the drinks, the ice cubes rattling onto the floor in a misplaced staccato.

"Damn that bitch. Jessi you don't have any idea what this world is. There is no more day, just the Night of the Hunter. And you've never had the guts to be a hunter."

00—00—00

Jessi hated how he made her feel horrible inside, hated how he made her feel so much inside. A swirling of emotions, emotions that made her weak to him, weak to everything that was going on inside. She was messing with people's lives whenever she helped him, something that was an utter taboo, something she'd been raised to do the opposite. She was the protector, the unseen judgment. How many of her ancestors had killed for the Magical nation to be hidden?

And here she was messing everything up.

Draco was going to be the downfall of everything, this one boy, who she was inexplicitly and completely…

In love with.

"Why? Why does it always have to be hatred? Why does all of this come from that," she asked him rather hysterically.

Draco gritted his teeth and looked away, unable to meet her eyes. "Like I know, stop asking me stupid questions!"

"Then give me a straight answer!"

"I did!"

Now they were angrier at each other than anything. Jessi whipped away her tears and ran a hand back through her hair, trying to find a way to vent her anger in a way that wasn't going to land either of them in the Hospital wing again.

"Time," he whispered, "Give me some time."

"How much?"

"Christmas break…" he began, "I won't be going home, you can…"

He trailed off as his eyes came back to rest on her, his words froze in his throat. Her eyes burned almost golden in the moonlight, strange and captivating.

"What if we don't have to do what they want us to?" she whispered so softly it appeared as if earlier they'd been shouting, "what if we just…"

Draco looked amazed she dared even mention the disorder. He licked his lips and was about to form a retort to tell her just how blasphemous that statement was when she went on.

"We're both in a situation where we don't really know what to do, we have to do things we don't want to," said Jessi, and eerie feeling of being watched coming over her, the realization that her instinct of neither the Rands nor Mischief had been speaking to her.

"What can we do though?" he whispered, "I can't stop being…"

Jessi shook her head of dark red curls and pursed her lips, "I know and I can't stop being…me. But there has to be a way for each of us to win."

"You know there is no way for me to win unless I complete what…what…what he has put before me."

They looked at each other shocked at the treason they were both committing with simply uttering words in the middle of a corridor in the middle of the night. Jessi recovered first her hands flying to rake through her hair again, searching for a plausible explanation.

"What if…someone could protect you from him?" she asked weakly. Draco gave a dry horse chuckle that sounded slightly maniacal.

"I'd rather go through with my task then run for cover. I am a Malfoy, I will not hide like some rat, my family name is-"

"And do you think mine isn't?" snarled Jessi, "I'm trying to find a way out of this where neither of us is hurt. Is that such a big deal?"

Draco peered down at her keenly, his grey eyes searching her, off in the distance a scuffling was heard and he quickly grabbed her arm and dashed behind a large outcropping of rock. Jessi immediately went on the defensive mode, her footsteps were silent and her breathing silent, more so than Draco who had no formal training on the art of being unseen.

"Why is it such a big deal to you that we both make this out alive?" he whispered in her ear as she peered out around their defense. She wanted to punch him not only for the question, but for the potential of giving away their location due to his incessant need to be a know it all jack ass.

"I just…don't want to see you hurt, is it that big a deal?"

"Well now Davis, we're getting somewhere."

Jessi promptly executed a very precise elbow jab with optimum results and smirked as Draco wheezed for breath.

Around the bend Mrs. Norris, with her ghastly red eyes, emerged. Jessi quickly planted a hand over Draco's mouth, which was warm to the touch and stared at him, trying to send a telepathic message to "shut the hell up."

A few moments passed and the cat moved on, but Jessi didn't remove her hand until she was utterly sure she was gone. Peering around the bend she slowly removed her hand, paying only half attention to Draco as she listened in for the tell-tell signs of Filch.

"Why did you elbow me?" moaned Draco as he nursed his abdomen, Jessi rolled her eyes.

"Get over it, it wasn't that hard a hit," she said as she straightened up from her crouched position. Her nerves were wired now; she desperately did not want to be caught out of bed at this time of night. Especially not with Draco Malfoy.

Said boy was now glowering down at her smugly. She gave him a puzzled look which he retorted only by saying, "Well now that we know where we stand…"

"What?" groaned Jessi, "We don't know where anyone stands! You didn't even listen to me did you? You pompous ass!"

Draco feigned a hurt heart and leaned against the rock, his earlier demeanor almost gone and Jessi was wondering if she missed his stomach and hit his head instead.

"So Davis, why don't you want to see me hurt?" he asked devilishly. Jessi conclude that it was rather sad that just one mention of deeper feelings and all emo affects he'd been giving off had dried up like nothing.

"Because I want to be the one to kill you, and I can't if someone else did," Jessi said with a rather monotone voice. She looked him flat in the eye and savored his rather unhappy look.

"Right," he mumbled.

"I guess Zabini was right. I have loads of evidence to prove it anyway," said Jessi as she started away and towards the dormitories, she glanced once back over her shoulder to the boy who stood in the moonlight.

"What are you talking about?" hissed Draco, instantly put off at any mention of his dark skinned friend. Jessi smiled, enjoying his unhappiness a little more that what was probably healthy.

"Why are you taking me to the ball?" asked Jessi with a smart smirk and a tap of her foot.

Draco squared his jaw and strutted by her with an air of self importance. His misery well hidden behind his expressive ego. "I thought it would be appropriate."

"Appropriate?" asked Jessi.

"Yes, I can't show up toting around someone who is ugly and can't dance Jessi," he said.

00—00—00

Chia smiled as she read over the letter her precious Jessi had sent her. Pulling her legs out from under the sleek satin sheets she emerged from her bed in a swish of silk and lace. Her companion still asleep. Walking over to the large French doors that lead out onto her veranda she smiled at the sunset.

"Of course I will help you my love, always and forever."

00—00—00

ONE DAY LATER

It would be a lie to say Jessi was not apprehensive about the upcoming dance. She had received her aunt's reply almost as quickly as she had sent the first owl. Dangling from its dainty claws was a scrap of paper that smelled like French perfume.

'Look for my hawk'

Which meant only one thing, Chia Rands was coming to visit, in person, Hogwarts.

A cold lump of stone had formed in her gut at the realization of her aunt's imminent arrival. It was not that she was embarrassed, per say, about her aunt, it was the looming fact that she was going to cast out a great net and rake in whatever could go wrong, to go wrong.

No one was safe from Chia.

Bev and Coralline were chattering continuously about it. They were huge fans of the witch; each had a stack of magazines that Chia had starred in. Jessi wanted to drown in her potion every time one of them asked which one they should ask to get signed.

"Why the long face Davis? Realize that you don't have a date to the ball?" snapped Pansy, who apparently didn't have a clue who Jessi was going with. Ignoring the other girl Jessi continued dreading the day when her aunt in her signature Spanish sunglasses and Italian heels would arrive.

Of course it had to happen when everyone would see her. She couldn't just show up silently and mingle in with the crowd. That would be "nonproductive" as she would have said.

During lunch Jessi watched the windows and doors with an obsessed fervor that made her friends glance repeatedly over their pudding and even had Draco sending her strange looks. Jessi was too worked up to eat, she just knew, a few more minutes…

A second year girl with long braids dashed into the hall, her round cheeks flushed and her eyes livid. Much of the hall turned to look at her, Jessi's neck snapped to the side and her breath caught in her throat.

"Chia de Lioncourt is _here_!"

Heads swiveled to hear; even Dumbledore who rarely spent lunch with the students looked up curiously. His eyes twinkled but his lined face was grim.

The hall hushed and Jessi swore she could hear her heart stop as the staccato of stilettos on stone echoed through the castle. Whispers erupted as the doors creaked open slowly and deliberately.

The collected crowd stared at Chia as if they had never seen a woman before in their entire lives. Jessi bet they hadn't, at least not one like her.

She wore all white, which was customary for traveling Rands during winter months. Her bodice had lace and ties going up the middle, bunching and gathering at the chest, her pants were tight, probably too tight and were an off white. Her shoes were white as well, stilettos with zippers; God knows how much she paid for them.

She had her dark sunglasses on and her long white blonde hair tied back away from her face in a primed fashion, not one hair was out of place and the soft pink gloss applied to her lips was utterly perfect. If there ever was a more gorgeous and self centered witch, Chia probably killed her to take her place.

She walked a few feet in; her face betrayed no emotion and her lips were a smooth line. She scanned the room, Jessi knew that was just for show, she knew where her niece was the moment she set foot inside of Hogwarts. The dark sunglasses rested on her finally and she stood up to recognize her as not only her superior, but also to show she knew she was there.

But hell everyone knew she was there.

"Jessikah, it's been a long time," said Chia as she walked, each hip swaying in synch, her long white fur coat billowing behind her. Jessi tried a small smile and looked up at her aunt.

"Yeah, I'm…glad you could make it on such short notice," said Jessi weakly.

"Of course dear," chimed Chia as she smiled up towards Dumbledore who excused himself from the faculty table to join them. Looking back towards her niece a frown came over her face. "I can't believe these uniforms, they must be stifling. My dear Dumbledore you must have a reform on these horrid uniforms, we live in the twenty first century for goodness sakes, no one actually wears cloaks anymore!"

"Well we try to keep the traditions alive here at Hogwarts," said Dumbledore as he took her hand and kissed it. Chia smirked and put her other hand on Jessi's shoulder. Jessi had to bite the inside of her cheek not to shiver, Rands did not touch one another without being hostile, and her aunt usually didn't touch her.

"Yes I can tell, regardless of how ridiculous and offensive they are," said Chia with a bright smile, she reached up and removed her sunglasses, something she didn't usually do, and stared down at the older man with a bright malevolence. Dumbledore, with his wise years met her look, and didn't flinch.

"I trust that your things have been searched by the Aurors stationed around the school, I hope everything went just fine," said Dumbledore and Chia smiled despite her radiating anger.

"it took them quite some time, you know how it is when you try to bring your entire traveling wear wardrobe with you, there's a lot to go through," chatted Chia, she promptly turned to Jessi who had been watching the display of power with a chilled fascination, and ignored but did not forget about the old wizard right in front of her.

"So who is the lucky boy who is going with you to this Ball?" she asked, the entire Slytherin table, who had been stunned silent suddenly broke out in chatter as the patrons looked about for who would go. Jessi turned to the table, swallowed, and met the eyes of a very surprised Draco Malfoy.

She was kind of happy he was stunned into silence.

Jessi smiled and he stood up to the sudden hush of the table. They both felt as if a thousand eyes were staring on them. Chia snapped her fingers and the sudden trance was broken.

"Draco Malfoy?" she said with an alluring charm, he looked to the tall woman who gracefully sauntered over to him, "well Jessi, aren't you just a rebel."

"Does Brass know?"

Chia turned back to her niece, her face suddenly plain and her gold eyes like polished topaz. "I did not tell him if that is what you are talking about. He mentioned about the letter you sent so I suppose he'd be a little shocked but he'd see your motive."

Jessi felt a little drained once she heard her aunt's words, but hid it inside. Instead focusing on the stunned look of Draco who had suddenly been grabbed at the chin by Chia and was being inspected, in front of the whole school.

"Not bad, I suppose, but I've met cuter boys in Italy and France then what this place dishes out," said Chia as she let him go and walked back to Jessi and Dumbledore, smiling at both she turned to Dumbledore.

"Care to show me to where I will be staying for the next two days mousier?" she asked sweetly as she crossed her arms over her large bosom. The tiny threadlike tattoos on her arms becoming apparent as she did so, Jessi looked to Dumbledore quickly, to see if he'd noticed.

"Of course Miss de Lioncourt," he said curtly and smiled ruefully, "I hope you don't mind your accommodations."

The two left without another word, Jessi sunk back into her seat and Pansy Parkinson almost died of a heart attack.

00—00—00

As they left their last class of the day the whole castle had been reformed. Mistletoe hung from all the arches and glittering trees with enchanted candles were found around every turn. The students were smiling more now than they had been in some time. Some more than others.

"I can't believe she's your aunt, I had no idea," said Zabini to Jessi as they walked away from the library, Jessi gave a groan, that was _not_ the first time today she'd heard that.

"I know, nobody can apparently," she said exasperated.

"But you're going to the Ball with Malfoy?" asked Zabini, as if he couldn't believe it himself. Jessi turned to him, her brown eyes glaring into his.

"Jealous Zabini?" she said sourly.

"Well…yeah kind of."

Jessi deadpanned and rolled her eyes, and walked a little faster. Blaise smirked and dashed to catch up with her.

"Well you know what happens at those dances and stuff right?" asked Blaise as he winked at a second year that dashed away. Jessi shook her head, just about having enough of him for the day.

"Well let's just say dancing isn't the only thing going on. And if Draco gets more than I do I'll be upset," he said ruefully.

Jessi stopped midstride and stared at him, he grinned back and she cracked him over the head with her books and then continued on. Vowing to never talk to him again, at least for the day.

00—00—00

Jessi gasped for breath as her aunt tightened the back of her dress even more. She grabbed onto the bed post and sucked in breath.

"Now you understand why we don't wear things like this often," said Chia as she tied the strings in place and went to making sure it all looked right. Her own hair was pulled up in long curls that flowed down her back like thick white waves. She wore a suit of deep purple and had a pair of small opera glasses dangling from a pocket.

"I hate these things," wheezed Jessi, "I was blackmailed into this one."

"Blackmailed?" asked Chia as she opened her makeup cabinet with a snap of her fingers.

"You know the Duel that's tomorrow night? I challenged Draco to it and he said the only way he would compete is if I went to the dance with him," said Jessi, the conversation was relaxed, Chia had a way of doing that to some people, making them uncomfortable when she wanted and relaxed when she desired.

Holding up a variety of colors to Jessi's skin Chia inquired further, "I see, and you agreed. Is he any good at dueling?"

"Our first practice match was a tie, our second I won," said Jessi, "He hit me with a Crusciartus curse and I almost ripped his arm off."

Chia swore beneath her breath and smiled at her niece, "Well I can't say you don't have style. What else does this Draco Malfoy do?"

A big fluorescent red flag went off in Jessi's mind. She thought quickly or else her aunt would catch her in a lie.

"He's getting information somehow," she said slowly, "I don't know from who yet. As far as I know he isn't up to anything too suspicious, a girl was hexed but that's about it, and there's no proof to even point to him."

Chia, apparently satisfied with that changed the subject, "heard anything about the Order?"

Jessi smirked as her aunt put on her blush, "half of the Aurors stationed here are Order members, you had to have known that from the beginning."

"Of course, but what about Harry Potter?" asked Chia as she painstakingly applied eye shadow, her gold eyes narrowing and soft lines appearing in the corners of her eyes.

"He's suspicious of everything as you know," said Jessi, "But I haven't seen him approach anyone about anything. He doesn't like Draco at all, and for good measure."

"I see."

"Yes."

"You know if Voldemort shows up here, and you can knife him, you'll go down in history, ours and theirs."

Jessi and Chia looked at each other and broke out laughing.

"If he's stupid enough to come here while not only Dumbledore is here, but us two as well, he's good enough as crucified," said Jessi with a smirk. Chia matched it with one of her dazzling smiles and patted the girl on the shoulder.

"Time to meet the music."

00—00—00

_All the right friends in all the right places,_

_So yeah we're going down._

_They got all the right moves in all the right faces,_

_So yeah, we're going down…_

Jessi took the steps slowly her trailing train glittering behind her as she descended the stairs. Below much of the Slytherin house stood, ready to be escorted by their dates out. At her appearance a great deal of silence took over the crowd. Beneath her neatly combed bangs and heavy dark red curls she could not find Draco, but as she continued down he appeared, flanked on either side by an uncomfortable but regal looking Goyle and Crabbe. But it was the Slytherin prince, in his smooth dark robes and fashionable silver buttons that stole the heart of the crowd.

Draco bowed to her, and she presented his hand, as if it were some sort of fairytale. He took it and kissed the back of it, his eyes darting up her arm to her face.

"Shall we go?" he asked his voice soft yet firm. Jessi found herself blushing despite the fact he'd done nothing to cause it. She nodded and took his arm, finding it warm but stiff.

The crowd parted as the two headed towards the great hall, not just in the common room, but on the stairs and adjoining hallways. Girls whispered about Draco's esteemed look and boys cast glances at the stripling white dress with soft grey accents Jessi wore.

"No used to the attention Jessi?" asked Draco, his snobbish interior snaking into his voice as he cast her a sidelong look. She snorted and rolled her eyes.

"I don't bask in the glory of others very often so I can't really say I get a lot of attention," said Jessi slyly. Draco sent her a sharp look, but let it go, tonight was to be a night they would not forget.

"Well you're about to get loads more."

Jessi was unable to retort for he had just then pulled her into the opening before the doors of the hall. Many students had already gathered underneath the enchanted snowy ceiling and were waiting to be let inside. Even the ghosts with their own dates had lined up in procession. It appeared they were just in time because Dumbledore, flanked by a very dressed up McGonagall came down the hall, obviously the openers to the night's festivities.

"Welcome everyone!" said Dumbledore to the crowds, his arms opening wide to embrace them all. "from near and far, we come together in peaceful harmony to celebrate not only the holidays, but tomorrow will be a day of great accomplishment, as it will kick of the first of the Annual Hogwarts Duel. So tonight dine with us, and tomorrow show us what you are made of!"

The crowd moved forward as Dumbledore opened the doors, all faces looking towards what lie inside.

"It's beautiful," whispered Jessi as she and Draco moved with the crowd. The entire hall had been painted white and snow lay in great piles about the place, great ice sculptures of all of the founders etched inside of them. The tables and chairs looked to be made out of ice or perhaps crystal, for they were not overly cold when sat in. Jessi smiled gleefully and Draco chuckled besides her, causing her to look away embarrassed.

"Happy Christmas," he whispered to her. His breath warm on her neck. Slowly Jessi turned back to him, her brown eyes meeting with his grey ones. She smiled slowly.

"Happy Christmas to you too Draco."

They found themselves a rather secluded spot beside the statue of Salazar Slytherin after kicking a first year out of it. Draco brushed off his sleeves and sat down across from Jessi, making it clear that no one else was to intrude upon them.

"You look…really good tonight," said Jessi, trying to start up a non conflicting conversation. Draco smirked over his crystal glass of water.

"You look really good to, wonderful in fact. Better than that trampy dress Zabini had you wear," he said as he folded his hands on top of the table and leaned forward. His pale skin didn't look so bad against all of the white. He, for once, didn't look so sickly, for once he looked…content.

Jessi smiled, "You don't really mean that."

"Yes I do," he said with another rare smile, "One might actually even call this a…"

Jessi's mind flew to what Zabini had said earlier, about things that happened after dances like these… fear welled up inside her at what he might suggest. She had come to terms with her infatuation with him…but was she willing to go…_that_ far?

"…date."

Jessi blinked, she had been utterly sure he was going to make some sort of reference to her trying to show off to him or something of the sort. Instead he simply told it how it was, for what appeared to be the first time in his life.

"I don't know Draco, wouldn't that be implying that both sides of this party were interested in one another. Because I think you've been quite clear about your dislike of me," she said with a sly smile as she sipped her water.

Draco looked a bit miffed as he took in her words, his smirk never left but he shook his head and rolled his eyes.

"You are something else Davis…"

Before the two of them could say more waiters emerged and began passing out food as the band stoked up a small tune. Jessi watched him over the Tatar being placed down between them; he didn't seem to be interested in saying anymore on the matter and was concentrating on the food.

The two ate in relative silence, Jessi learned that Draco hated when his food touched on a plate and Draco noticed that Jessi hated anything that was orange on her plate. In the end they ended up sharing a pudding, since Zabini came over and snatched Jessi's since Pansy was drowning her woes in chocolate over at his table.

The tables were cleaned and drinks were refreshed. Apprehension grew in Jessi's chest as she figured out what was going to take place. Draco appeared to be just fine, not at all anxious about the unfolding events.

The band's soft tunes suddenly spiked, upwards and then back down, catching the audience's attention. A dance floor had appeared before them and the smooth silver floor was untouched by anyone.

"Come on," said Draco as he stood up, putting out a hand to Jessi who stared shocked at it, "Care to dance Jessi? Surely you know how?"

"Of course I do!" she snapped as she took his hand, her seconds of defiance giving her the energy to move. Draco sent her a smug look and guided them, alone to the dance floor.

With every step she took, just like the earlier duel, her heart beat in rhythm. Only this time she was not going to her potential death, she was dancing with it.

Once they took one step onto the smooth floor the snow suddenly started coming down, where it had been stopped during their meal. Jessi took one glance up into the enchanted night sky as the band struck up on cellos and violins all around her.

Draco put a hand on her waist, drawing her eyes away from the people staring at them. She looked back at him, and he could see the fear in her eyes.

"Just follow me."

_Let's paint a picture, of the perfect place,_

_They got it better than what anyone's told ya,_

_There be the King of Hearts, _

_And you're the Queen of Spades,_

_And we'll fight for you like we were your soldiers_

"Just trust me."

Jessi moved silently with him, her dress billowing around them in soft curves and sparkling beads. Draco pulled her close, and then with one arm let her go till she held on only by his fingertips, and then drew her back, tracing more steps and the music got heavier and deeper, faster and lighter.

He twirled her and she leaned back onto his arm, one of her legs arcing into the sky. The music stopped for a second and so did they, then with them started moving again, winding in and out of their forms. Till nothing was there but the gliding of bodies and the sound of the music coming over them in waves.

Jessi found herself trapped in his grey eyes as they moved together, no longer alone for more adventurous couples had dared to join them, but she couldn't have cared.

_Do you think I'm special?_

_Do you think I'm nice?_

_Am I bright enough to shine in your spaces?_

_Between the noise you hear, and the sound you like,_

_Are we just sinking in the ocean of faces?_

Draco pressed his left cheek to her right as they glided around the dance floor, his warm flesh against hers; she stiffened at first, but then let herself relax in his arms.

Safety washed over him, for this one night everything was his, everything was alright. There was no death and there was no life, there was just the two of them twirling around on a dance floor. It was simple and that was the way he wanted it.

He could feel her heart beat inside her when he pulled her close, and she could feel his need whenever his fingertips touched her. He found her brown eyes to be soft, gentle, where they were usually twin pools of rage.

He decided then that this Jessi, this small delicate and trusting thing…was his favorite.

00—00—00

Jessi felt punch drunk as Draco led her back towards the common room. She had her shoes in one hand and the other was clutching rather haphazardly to his arm. Almost bowed over in laughter at something he'd said she found the large clip Chia had put in her hair falling out.

"Hold on, I have to adjust this…" she said with a smile as she stopped and dropped her shoes, despite the fact they probably cost more than Draco's entire ensemble. He grinned back at her, high on the moment and the freedom.

Sweeping back towards her he brushed the hair from her face and tickled the sides of her body as she valiantly tried to secure her clip in place. She broke out in laughter and just pulled the clip down in mock furry, she put a hand in her neat locks and rubbed it all around, making them fly in all directions.

"Now I look like that bloody banshee!" she cried as they both laughed, Draco guided her up a few more steps before she leaned and sat down on a window ledge to catch her breath. He tore off his jacket and flung it over one shoulder, his own hair disorderly. As they waited in silence they realized that the hallway was deserted, Draco sat with a great heave beside her.

"Tonight was wonderful," she said with a tired smile, "I didn't think it would go that well."

Draco smirked at her and shrugged.

"Things always go good with you."

Jessi's heart stopped in her chest, her eyes stared and her breathing stilled. Slowly Draco turned to meet her stare.

"You know," he said softly, leaning in to touch the side of her face, "I like when your hair is like that. Wild. Free."

Everything he was not.

She didn't know what to say so instead she simply blushed and smiled up at him through her wild locks. His hand slid from her cheek to her neck, soft yet firmly pulling her forward.

All of her instincts and goals simply flew out the window at the feel of his lips. Unlike the last kiss the two shared this one was not fierce and heavy, but soft chaste and gentle. Something Jessi didn't know he could be.

Her chest was heaving greatly by the end of the kiss, her eyes heavy lidded and her cheeks softly rosy. "I want you to have something," she whispered softly. Draco swallowed thickly and gasped as she began to pull up her dress alongside her leg, her bare flesh becoming visible. His fingers gripped the wall beside him as his arousal grew.

Jessi tried not to feel self conscious as she pulled from the strap around her thigh something she almost always kept close to her. A double actually. Draco leaned in, curious at the small shining object and heady to be closer to her.

"This is called and Unsealing Key," she said softly as she laid the tiny key in the palm of her hand, the small twisted metal glittered in the moonlight, "I can unlock rooms that have been enchanted and most boundary spells as well as just locked doors. I have an extra at home, you can have this one."

Draco was surprised by the gift, unsure why she was giving it to him in the first place. Wouldn't she want to try to find out what he'd been hiding in the room of requirement? Why hadn't she used that already?

"It only works on things that are not permanently warded. If something was created with that spell then it won't open it, but things like…the girl's dormitories, that's a simple detection spell, you can break through it with this."

Draco took it from her hand and suddenly it shifted, the once lacy gold key turned silver and grew larger and thicker in his hands. He supposed that was how it got into different keyholes. Smiling he put it in his breast pocket.

Are you suggesting that I sneak into a certain room?" he asked softly, his voice thick and husky. Jessi leaned up against the wall he'd backed her into. Her lips slightly parted and her eyes watching him, all of him.

"Maybe."

_I know we got it good,_

_But they got it made_

_And the grass is getting greener each day_

_I know things are looking up, but soon they'll take us down_

_Before anybody is knowing our names_

00—00—00

Chia smiled sweetly as she descended through the castle with practiced sleek steps. Her long hair glistening in the torchlight and the flickering light shining off her sunglasses. The hallways were empty save for the occasional mouse.

Stopping and exhaling she turned her head slowly, inhaling. Tilting her glasses down she looked over her bare shoulder, her smile fading into a straight, yet, beautiful line. From the shadows behind her a lone figure emerged.

"Serverus Snape."

"Chia de Lioncourt."

When Chia smiled again it was not the sweet innocent one that she'd had before, it wasn't anything she'd done before, even in the presence of her niece. It was something that only resulted in the act of hunting. A bearing of white teeth and marble like lips.

"Wandering the halls? I didn't think you had that authority," he said smoothly, his dark hair hanging in his equally dark eyes. With a flash Chia's sunglasses were in her hand at her side, making him shiver at the pure speed of her movements.

"I have the authority to make my own rules," she said slowly.

"Money doesn't give you that."

"Why don't you tell that to those Malfoy's then?" she hissed slowly, but with no real malice.

Snape flinched; this woman knew the moves before even he did. She stood unafraid and in charge, there was no way to bully her into doing anything. He realized this quickly, but did not give her the leeway to walk all over him.

"As a teacher of this school I must ask you why you are out of your quarters and roaming about this late at night," he said sharply. "Unless given a uniform answer I must insist you allow me to escort you back to your room."

Chia turned slowly to meet his gaze, not surprised at the look of shock when he got a look of the long and rather long strip of flesh that was evident down her front, her navel pierced and a glistening silver charm caught the light whimsically.

"Have you ever met a woman like me?" she asked slowly, a purr of her voice and her eyes were misty as she took a few steps forward. Her glasses dangled on her fingertips.

Snape simply could not believe the rashness of this woman. Her sexual appeal was evident, but to unleash it on an unsuspecting teacher was almost beyond his thought process. He took a step backwards and she stopped.

"Of course you haven't, you keep yourself cooped up here. In this little place, home, to school and home again. Haven't traveled out. Haven't had the money. Sitting all alone and whispering _'why did she have to die…'_"

Snape was furious now, his black eyes livid and his hands turned to fists. His anger was only amplified by the blank look of the woman before him. Who appeared to be watching him from the inside, her mouth rather slack and the bottom row of her pearly white teeth visible. Her eyes were, though, just as heated as his.

"Never attack an enemy you know nothing about," whispered Chia as she brushed by him, placing her sunglasses back on her face and licking her glossy lips.

Severus never knew what hit him until he was awoken by squealing Peeves later on. Apparently he'd been knocked unconscious for hours…

00—00—00

Russian roulette isn't the same without a gun


	11. Chapter 11 Game

Chapter 11 Game

Ahh how I've procrastinated posting this. I haven't lost faith in this story, its just I have a billon and one other things going on at the moment. Including the countdown to movie number seven! Whooo! So like, enjoy.

I only own my own characters and the settings that are not true to the book or movie.

_How did we get here?  
I used to know you so well, yeah  
How did we get here?  
Well, I think I know  
_

Jessi gasped, the air pulling into her lungs with a fearsome greediness that was all consuming. Her pupil dilated into small round dark orbs inside her golden irises. Oxygen filled her blood, filling her with the nourishing chemical that fed all acts her body preformed.

Above her the thick and embroidered fabric of the bed curtains kept out most of the midmorning sun but one sliver, no thicker than her arm slid across her rumpled sheets and pale skin. The flush of blood to one's head when waking up alighted on her cheeks, turning them a rosy shade of rogue. The air was thick; she could see the dust dancing in that sliver of light, held as if transfixed in the rueful gaze of the ever present sun. It all smelled like warm cotton and…salt? Sea salt almost, without the mildew and humidity and it laced the air in such a way one had to follow the scent to identify it.

Swallowing, still staring up into the dark green underbelly of the fabric and following the silver stitching that intermingled with the darker fabric. Her body felt heavy and languid, exhausted somehow, even after hours of sleep…

Sitting up she gathered her sheets around her waist, they looked as if they had been torn off in some wild wind storm and thrown about. Her bare foot, with the small gold chain wrapped delicately around her ankle appeared beneath the olive and white sheets.

Pressing a hand to her forehead she sucked in a deep breath again.

00—00—00

The quidditch courts hadn't ever looked so different in the many years Hogwarts had been active. The stands were refurnished and covered in so that the wind did not hit the spectators so much. In truth the stadium would only be used like this once, once the first Trial was concluded the activities would move into the great hall. But for now it was the dueler's stage, or stages.

There were almost a dozen or so dueling lanes set up on the grass, each had students gathered around them. All combatants.

Jessi hugged her arms close to her body; there was still a chill in the air even though most of the snow had been removed from the premises so that the combatants could maneuver with the most ease allowed. It was if the entire field had been encompassed with a large, warm bubble. Which was probably the case.

She hadn't seen anyone else she really knew from her house. She was currently squashed between two rather boisterous Ravenclaw boys who were debating on how they would be thinned out. The one on her left kept glancing at her and that alone made her feel out of place. There was already a whopping total of about twenty girls in the total of a hundred students, she was feeling misplaced.

She also hadn't seen Draco at all, all morning, not even at breakfast. She was pretty sure that if he didn't eat he wasn't going to last long.

'_Good, then he won't get hurt…'_

'And you won't get to go after him.'

Jessi pushed the threatening thoughts from her mind as she watched the amassed crowds take their seats. Mostly it was students and faculty, more important people wouldn't show up until the crowd had been thinned tenfold and they didn't have to brave the winter to sit out and watch.

An uneasy feeling settled over her, it wasn't due to the fact she was being watched, but that she had to hide her instincts from everyone. Almost every eye would be focused on her today and she had to make sure she didn't screw up.

The crowds hushed as Dumbledore stood up and called them to his attention.

"Welcome all to the festivities!" he said to them, a loud cheer took up from the Gryffindor side, Jessi assumed Potter was somewhere in the throngs about her. "We've come here to take part in a friendly competition. For this I have Professor Snape to go over some of the most basic rules, and then we will draw lots to see who fights first!"

Everyone shut up good as Snape told the contestants which moves were legal, and most all were, except for "exceptionally harmful or destructive spells and of course the Unforgivable." Jessi rolled her eyes but stayed silent.

When Snape was done preaching Dumbledore gave a few claps, attempting to probably congratulate him for not fainting when speaking publicly, but no one really cared. They did, however, care very much whenever a large, purple and green top hat appeared before the elder wizard.

He tapped the side of the odd hat and a brilliant jade fire erupted from its contents. Reaching his good hand deep within he pulled out a small piece of paper, peering down his crooked nose he shouted out a name.

"Ralph Bellenworth!"

A small Hufflepuff boy emerged as everyone backed away from him. Dumbledore smiled and reached in and pulled out another name.

"Henry Scotterson!"

The first two were directed by Snape towards one of the lanes, while Dumbledore fished around for another couple names.

Before Jessi knew it there were people standing up on the planks all around her. Each eyeing their opponent and the crowd that had begun to chatter excitedly.

"All other combatants please come towards the referee box to await your chance," said Dumbledore as the rest of the crowd worked its way over. Much to Jessi's discomfort she was wedged in-between the two Ravenclaws. She thought she saw a flash of ashen blonde hair but it soon disappeared in the crowd.

"And now, BEGIN!

Spells started flying in all directions, luckily someone had thought to put up wards to protect the numerous viewers, but other contestants were not so lucky. Many got hit from their neighbor's spells rebounding and not their opponents. Jessi sucked in breath in surprise as within five minutes all the matches were over.

"And here goes our round two! Let's have a big hand for our victors and those who just didn't do as well!"

Chatter and clapping serenaded the winner's decent to the stands and jeering and medical attention to the losers. All of the screaming made Jessi feel even more anxious, she clenched and unclenched her hands. Half of her eager to fight, the other half eager to run.

She wanted to prove herself, but she really, really didn't want to give anything away. This was the one thing she was good at, the one thing she had to lie about.

"Jessi Davis!"

Her heart leapt to her throat as her name came from his lips. She stood up and of course the entire line of contestants in wait stared at her, stiffly she walked up to Snape who was waiting to escort her to her lane with a rather rueful smile.

"I hope they give you Potter, I'd love to see that smile wiped off his smart little face," he whispered lowly to her. She stared at him, aghast as such venom in his words.

"Jason Flemming!"

One of the big Ravenclaw boys she'd been stuck by stood up and pumped a fist in the air. "I get to fight a girl! Why don't they let me go sit with everyone now? This won't take more than a few seconds!" he boomed.

She was sure Snape took a few steps away from her as she fumed. Suddenly the revealing of her entire family didn't seem so bad, didn't seem so important…

"Hey you!" she shouted, her face a scowl of disgust as he turned to look at her. A great grin lit up his features.

"I'm gonna shove my wand so far down that fatass mouth of yours, you'll never kiss anyone but your mother with it!"

She then made the gesture of silting someone's throat. The boy looked shocked and his friends jeered him on and Jessi stared daggers through him.

Snape led them over to a lane as the next pair was decided. Jessi crossed her arms over her chest, drawing her wand and waiting, the boy on the other hand kept glancing over his shoulder at his friends who were shouting things at him. He turned to her and looked sheepish.

"You're that one that…"

"Laid out Draco Malfoy like a flobberworm, yeah that's me," snapped Jessi, "got something to say about it?"

He clammed up immediately and shook his head 'no', she wanted to smirk and tease him more but she realized he wasn't going to be much of an opponent, despite his friends cries.

00—00—00

"Nice to see that you made it past the first round," snapped Draco from many seats ahead of Jessi at the Slytherin table. He grinned devilishly and his groupies followed in with their own mocking of Jessi's first fight. Sneering at him she put her chin on her hand and tried not to give into the bouts of nausea and vomiting that had been affecting her ever since she was hit with a stray spell which almost knocked her out of the running. Her head hurt, much like many of the students in the hall at the moment. At every table there was a great number of wounded and injured. All serious cases of course were horded up in the hospital wing.

Much of the RavenClaw boys avoided her like the plague, which on any other day would have been great but since many of them had girlfriends just dying to give Jessi a piece of their minds she was less than enthused.

"You really hit him hard," rambled Bev as she poked at the food on her plate. Jessi hadn't even touched hers, and truly didn't dare to.

"He was asking for it," mumbled Jessi as she slouched down onto the tabletop. Giving a low moan she clenched her mouth to keep from throwing up.

"Having a hard time down there Davis?" asked Malfoy, the ever present charming yet annoying look on his face. As spectacular as most thought him to be even he didn't come out of the standings unscathed. Though there was no outside wound he was suffering from the lasting effects of an extremely powerful body binding curse that for some reason only affected his waist down. He of course claimed the only reason the person had jinxed him so was because he was afraid he'd steal his girlfriend.

Jessi gave a lurching movement as Draco and his friends laughed heartily and Bev looked sourly at them. Jessi however was not going to take such statements lying down. Her hand moved about the table with a clumsy finesse. Finally, seeking the instrument she was looking for she gripped it tightly.

"You know I'd offer to hold your hair back but I don't want to catch that blasted Weasley disease you've got," he jeered and turned to goad Zabini into laughing with him when a thick book came between him and the boy beside him. The table went silent as all eyes either turned to the gold fork protruding from the leather book or the steely eyed Snape who held it.

"Who might I ask, just threw that?" he asked slowly as his eyes swept over the table. Draco who had not seen the projectile looked around at his class mates questioningly before Snape turned the book over, and with great difficulty removed the pronged instrument from the cover.

"Well? Anyone going to fess up or am I going to have to punish all of you?" he asked. By this time most of the hall had tuned in and was watching with apprehension and eagerness.

Before he could condemn anyone to an early funeral Jessi's stomach had the final laugh as she retched under the table. Immediately the people sitting around her leapt away and Snape's attention was drawn elsewhere. Whipping her mouth on the back of her hand Jessi glared up at him as he yanked up a sniggering Pansy and commanded her to get Madame Pomphrey.

00—00—00

Bev did not look convinced about Jessi's condition as she packed for her holiday break. Jessi sat on her bed and leafed through her Transfiguration books as her friend packed. Every once in a while she would take a deep drink out of a twisted rather sinister purple bottle that Madame Pomphrey had given her for her nausea.

"Are you sure you're not coming home for the holiday? I mean I'm sure your aunt would have you home," said Bev warily. Jessi gave her friend a half smile at her still keening obsession over her aunt.

"Honestly, my family, including my aunt, isn't the kind of people to have celebrations. At least not big ones," said Jessi softly, "When I was a kid my mom would throw parties and things, but not much anymore."

"Sounds like a depressing dump," muttered Bev as she glanced over her shoulder before strapping her small grey owl to her cart.

Jessi laughed despite her friend's blunt statement and turned yet another page. She was not expecting what was to be said next.

"I heard Malfoy is staying here for the holidays too. You'll have to tell me how he is," said Bev.

Jessi nearly choked on her purple medicine and swallowed thickly, "What are you talking about?"

Bev put a hand on her hip and sneered happily, tossing her brown hair over her shoulder. "Please Jessi; we all saw how he was all over you at the dance. You're totally going to sneak him in here somehow this break and when you do I want details."

Jessi gaped at her friend who was entirely serious in her statements. Her cheeks flamed red and she couldn't look at her. "We aren't even friends."

"I know and that's what's so steamy about all of this," said Bev with a small sigh, "You seem to hate each other on the spot but underneath we so know you're hitting it."

"Who is this 'we' you are referring to?" asked Jessi, trying valiantly to change the subject.

"Oh just Coraline and me and a few other girls, you'd be surprised about how many girls actually hate you because of him. Some love you though, since you knocked Pansy off her overripe pedestal," said Bev as she double checked that all of her things were situated neatly.

Muttering something darkly Jessi rolled her eyes and sank back into her pillows. "Trust me, if anything were going on between us I'd let you know. But we're just being competitive. My family…wouldn't really approve of us."

"And that makes it even more romantic," said Bev with a girly sigh, "Your life is just so dramatic. I'd love to be you some days."

Jessi laughed and closed her books. "Trust me; it's a lot more work than you think."


End file.
